Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council

In the wake of the April 4 chemical weapons attack on the Syrian rebel held town of Khan Sheikhoun, the former head of chemical warfare in the 5th Division of the Syrian army, Brigadier-General Zaher al-Sakat, who in 2013 defected from the regime, has stated that the regime has large amounts of chem

On the level of the world powers, the US attack demonstrated Trump's willingness to employ military force independently for the purpose of upholding international norms and enforcing previous resolutions, even after Russia and China vetoed a resolution in the Security Council in this regard.

On the surface, the wars in Syria and Iraq are continuing at full intensity. The fight between Iraqi government forces and Islamic State in western Mosul is proving a slow, hard slog... But while the tactical contests are continuing, the general direction of events in both the war against Islamic S

The civil war in Syria entered its seventh year on March 15. After six years that UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein described to the UN Human Rights Council as "the worst man-made disaster since World War II," encouraging news came from Astana, Kazakhstan, in mid-March.

Having reached the six-year anniversary, the death toll is now counted by the hundreds of thousands with a refugee crisis tallied in the millions. The catastrophe in Syria remains a dark stain on the soul of humanity that challenges previously held norms and assumptions.

Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Russia for discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin. As Putin noted in the leaders' joint press conference, Israel and Russia have "established very close and very confidential contact" in recent years and the two leaders

The direction of events in Syria raises a number of questions about the current diplomacy of the Syrian war which have potential implications far beyond Syria itself. These relate primarily to the intentions of Russia in the Syrian conflict, and also to the stance that the new US Administration will

The genesis of the KGB's developing ties with Palestinian terror organisations can be traced back to the end of the 1960s. The Soviet spy agency had code names for the different factions making up the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO): Fatah, the main movement led by Yasser Arafat, was dubbed

Putin will use Aleppo's capture to damage US foreign policy. His intentions are already clear. After all, in English-news propaganda outlets such as RT, the Russians are proudly rejecting American demands that Sunni rebels be given safe passage out of Aleppo. It's Obama vs. Putin 101. Unwilling to p

The KGB and politburo heads saw the Zionist and Jewish movements as a clear, immediate and real danger to world peace and to the integrity of the Soviet empire - "a danger which is only second to the main enemy, the United States." And as farfetched as this may sound, they really believed in the Pro

With the Assad regime, and its Russian, Iranian and Hezbollah allies, making major in-roads into the rebel-head eastern district of Aleppo, it now looks like only a matter of time until the city falls to the regime. With US President-elect Trump having pledged to ignore the Syrian conflict and to se

The explosion of a SpaceX rocket in Florida destroyed an advanced communications satellite developed in Israel, throwing the Israeli satellite industry into crisis. Worth between US $200-300 million, the Amos-6 satellite was the most sophisticated built in Israel's history and had been leased by Fa

In the wake of the charges laid on August 4 by Israel against Muhammad el-Halabi, the head of the charity World Vision in Gaza, for allegedly diverting large amounts of aid to Hamas, Israel announced on August 9 that it had also arrested and charged a UN Development Program (UNDP) contractor, Waheed

Today's Update looks at Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's historic trip to Africa, which is about to conclude. Whilst there, he visited, and met with the leaders of, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Rwanda. His first stop was Uganda, where he commemorated the famous 1976 Israeli rescue of the h

He did it again. After having caught the world off guard last fall by diving head-on into the Syrian civil war, Russian President Vladimir Putin has now stunned everyone, even his Syrian clients, by announcing a springtime retreat. The Kremlin's statement, made as the five-year-old war's protagonis

Russian President Putin announced on Tuesday that Russia is pulling out the “main part” of Russia'’s expeditionary force in Syria - but are keeping a key airbase and naval base. This Update is about the significance of the announced withdrawal, especially for Syria, and what was li

Over the ruined landscape of northern Syria, a number of core factors which today define the strategic reality of the Middle East are colliding. Close observation of that blighted area therefore offers clues as to the current state of play more broadly in the region - who is on the way up, who on th

In the Syrian civil war, the Assad regime has been making major gains of late, thanks in large part to Russian assistance, and looks likely to regain most or all of the parts of Aleppo, Syria's largest city, which it had lost to rebel groups over recent years. Meanwhile, last week'

Between Nov. 13 and Dec. 14, there were virtually daily attacks against Israelis involving the use of knives, guns, vehicles, rocks and various explosive devices, as the current wave of terrorism continued.

Israel's Shin Bet internal security agency reported on Nov. 16 that October had been the worst month for terrorism in Israel in over nine years. In all, the month saw 602 terrorist attacks committed, with 11 Israelis killed and 80 suffering moderate to serious injuries.