Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council

Gaza, the narrow, overcrowded, and destitute coastal strip wedged between Egypt and Israel is thirsting for power and light: physically, politically, and psychologically. The physical crisis is about the strip's lone power station's fuel, which ran out in April due to intensifying tension between H

The security cabinet of 1967 appears in these never-published transcripts as a group of serious, professional and responsible decision-makers. While the ministers brought their worldviews to the table, they often didn't vote on party lines, often did listen to one another, and generally managed to m

This special edition of the AIR contains several different essays and articles looking back on the historical watershed that was the 1967 Six Day War from the perspective of half a century. However, I would strongly like to recommend one more important essay that we simply could not fit in this edit

Since taking office in 2009, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has often been criticised in the media for supposedly not doing enough to promote peace with the Palestinians and ultimately being responsible for the lack of progress in the peace process. However, in recent days, new reports i

Whilst Israel has long bemoaned its scarcity of natural resources, now, for the first time in its almost 70 years of existence, Israel has quietly begun exporting natural gas to other countries.

According to a recent report in the British Telegraph, Israel withdrew its ambassador from Cairo quietly some time ago due to security concerns. Over the many years of exchanging diplomatic missions, while Egyptian diplomatic missions have always enjoyed their stays in Tel Aviv, security concerns ha

On Feb. 17, Hamas elected Yahya Sinwar, a former Israeli prisoner who was released in the Gilad Shalit deal, as its new leader in Gaza. While largely unknown to the outside world due to his preference to shun the media, Sinwar, a senior member of Hamas' military wing, is considered one of the most

The US based Freedom House think-tank has released the initial findings of its annual Freedom in the World report. The report analyses the state of political and civil freedoms, as well as the state of governance frameworks, in each country around the world, based upon a "combination of on-the-groun

President Trump's first days in office have been met with a wide range of responses from Israel and the broader Middle East.

Had Mr. Obama had the chance to read Ike's Gamble, Michael Doran's account of President Dwight D. ("Ike") Eisenhower's statecraft before, during and after the Suez Crisis of 1956, he might have saved his breath. Mr. Doran, a scholar and former State and Defence Department official in the George W. B

Change sweeping across the Middle East has prompted several Sunni Arab states to engage more closely with Israel. Shared strategic threats - the growing threat posed by Iran and its allies, the expanding threat of Sunni Jihadism, and US retrenchment - are key drivers, especially for Gulf states, whi

Former Israeli Prime Minister and President Shimon Peres' funeral in Jerusalem on Friday, September 30 was attended by world leaders past and present, including US President Barack Obama, former US President Bill Clinton and Britain's Prince Charles.

Wilayat Sinai, an organisation identified with Islamic State, has recently suffered a series of serious blows from the Egyptian Army. Most prominent among them was the air strike in early August 2016 that killed dozens of senior commanders, launched as part of a targeted campaign against terrorism i

Israel can take some consolation from the official tut-tuts that followed Egyptian judoka Islam el-Shehaby's refusal to shake hands or ceremoniously bow to his Israeli opponent Or Sasson on August 12.  Shehaby was reprimanded by the International Olympics Committee and Egyptian authorities sen

This Update features some background and analysis of Turkey's intervention in the Syrian civil war last week, in an operation termed "Euphrates Shield" launched last Wednesday, and aimed initially at the ISIS-held town of Jarablus - which Kurdish forces looked poised to take.

Israel, in short, had always had at any given time at least two friends within the Turkish-Iranian-Egyptian triangle. In 2012, however, all three were at odds with the Jewish state. Four years on, the tables have turned.

This weekend saw a visit to Israel by Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry. That may not ostensibly seem surprising given that Israel and Egypt have had full diplomatic relations for almost four decades, but in fact was a highly unusual step - the first such visit in nine years. As such it was a

Last week brought news that Israel and Turkey are set to restore full diplomatic ties, ending the six-year impasse that followed Israel's interception of the Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has heralded the deal as "an agreement of strategic importance" that w

Shifting dynamics in the Middle East may have presented a rare opportunity to establish the groundwork for a lasting, regionally-backed peace between Israel, the Palestinian Authority and their Arab neighbours.

It's been a while, but ABC TV "7.30" on Wednesday witnessed the full-blown reappearance of Sophie McNeill the advocacy journalist, in a story entitled "Rafah border crossing opens to sick Gazans seeking medical treatment in Egypt." The whole story was shallow and contradictory - and it was clear ne