Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council

The Christian communities of Syria and Iraq have survived 2,000 years of tumult and war. In some of them, prayers are still said in Aramaic, the language that Jesus used in daily life. These communities now tremble on the brink of destruction.

This new book by the ever-controversial Prof. Juan Cole of the University of Michigan is yet another example of his scholarship and prognostications about a Middle East that just will not stay pegged to standard leftist tropes. In this case, Cole attempts to capture the significance of the so-called

Reaction to Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop's announcement, during her visit to Iran on April 18-19, of a proposed intelligence sharing deal with Teheran to fight Islamic State and handle prospective Iranian asylum seekers was largely sceptical. On Channel Ten's "The Bolt Report" (April 26

Christopher Hayes (ALP, Fowler) - May 14 - "Last year's Gaza War has had a profound impact on me - a conflict which saw Israel attempt to suppress Hamas rockets but resulted in the deaths of over 1,500 Palestinians, of whom 538 were children...I still find it hard to shake the image of the four boys

In a recent issue of National Interest, former CIA analyst Paul Pillar lamented "the near-obligatory reference to Nazis in any anti-agreement writing about Iran." The comparison, he argues, is "an emotion-based effort to foster distaste for doing any business with such an ogre-like regime," which ex

In early May, inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) reported that they had located traces of sarin-type chemical weapons and ricin-type biological weapons in at least three sites in Syria which the Assad regime had not reported.

The annual report of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights says human rights for people living in the Palestinian-controlled areas in the West Bank and Gaza are the worst they have been for years. It said that several people died in Hamas detention, that Hamas killed 16 prisoners d

NSW Labor leader Luke Foley's edict that MPs travelling on subsidised study tours to Israel must spend equal time in the West Bank and Gaza prompted columnist Rowan Dean to imagine such a trip. "Arrived at Lod Airport, after circling around to avoid being blasted out of the sky by IS, Hamas, Hezbol

Saudi Arabia's military intervention in March against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen - without prior American coordination - indicates a new self-reliant foreign policy by the younger generation of the country's ruling family. They appear determined to curb an Iranian push for Shi'ite hegemon

The fall of Ramadi to the fighters of the Islamic State (IS) on May 15 was a disaster for the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. The taking of the city brings IS to just over 100 kilometres from Baghdad. In addition to showcasing the low calibre of the Iraqi security forces, the ev

Faced with the suffering of their own people, the Palestinians recently decided not to help. Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas rejected a deal with Israel brokered by the United Nations that would allow Palestinian refugees living in Syria to resettle in the West Bank and Gaza. Abba

On 19 May 2015, we lost a giant of academia, world Jewry and the fight against antisemitism.Professor Robert Wistrich, who mixed knowledge with wisdom and research with passionate advocacy, suffered a fatal heart attack. Less than a week earlier he had delivered a powerful address to the Fifth Glob

Having surprised everyone with a decisive electoral victory in March, Binyamin Netanyahu seemed to have all but lost its fruits by May. In what will surely be recalled as one of the most unpredicted moves in the history of Israeli politics, Netanyahu's former aide and longtime ally Avigdor Lieberma

Australia is not new to the threat of jihadi terrorism, but the 15-16 December 2014 hostage crisis staged by Man Haron Monis in Sydney shook the Australian people and was followed live across the world. Previous and recent arrests of young would-be Australian jihadists preparing terrorist attacks ha

New Zealand's battle to secure a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) was long and hard-fought. And with just a two-year term to serve, starting from last January, the country's foreign affairs officials don't plan to waste what time they have. Foreign Minister Murray Mc

Support for the Palestinian cause and antipathy towards Israel is a rare point of agreement in the bare-knuckled Malaysian political debate. But there are outliers, like the hardline Muslim NGO Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Malaysian Muslim Solidarity) - known as ISMA. The move by the Vatican to recogn

As AIR has reported, there has been a clear and dramatic rise in antisemitism in Europe in recent years. I won't repeat all the statistics again, nor the evidence that in many cities it is simply unsafe to be identifiably Jewish on the street. Why has this happened?

Last December, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the head of a centre-right government of 68 members in the 120-seat Knesset, called for new elections following disputes with several key coalition members. On March 17, Netanyahu's Likud party emerged as the clear winner, with a seemingly co