Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council

No sensible expert on the Middle East should be able to assert that Iran is disinterested in "regional dominance", "does not seek" it and "is light years from achieving" it without provoking laughter ("The art of regime change", May 10).

Hezbollah acts as a "state with in a state," maintaining its own domestic security services and extremely powerful military forces and conducting its own, or rather Iran's, foreign policy. More problematically, it is also the kingmaker, the most powerful force in official Lebanese politics, and this

The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council welcomes US President Donald Trump's announcement that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, with the hope that this decision signals the beginning of a new era of negotiations and sustained diplomatic efforts to put into place

A report published in late March 2018 about the Palestinian Authority (PA) exposed corruption at the highest levels. In its annual report, the Coalition for Accountability and Integrity found widespread corruption and lack of transparency and accountability in the PA during 2017.

Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute spoke at an AIJAC event in Melbourne on 26 April 2018. This post contains two short excerpts from her talk, relating specifically to the challenges posed by Hezbollah and Turkey.

Let's give credit where credit is due. First, US President Donald Trump set a red line and enforced it. He warned that the large-scale use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime would trigger a US attack.

The balance of power between Israel and its neighbours is the critical variable in Israel's quest for survival in a bad neighbourhood. As long as the power differential between the Jewish State and its foes is growing, then Israel's capacity to overcome regional security challenges is assured.

As reader are undoubtedly aware, on Saturday, 105 missiles were fired by American, British and French military units at Syrian chemical weapons research and storage sites, in punishment for the latest Assad regime chemical weapons attack in Douma on April 7, which killed at least 75 people. This Upd

On March 18, a 32 year old father of four was stabbed to death in Jerusalem's old city by a Palestinian, who was subsequently shot dead by Israeli police. On March 16, two IDF soldiers were murdered in a vehicular attack near Mevo Dotan in the northern West Bank. The driver was arrested.On March 18,

Dr. Pipes contends that part of the Iranian public's frustration with the regime is that they expected to see the benefits of the Iran nuclear deal, known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), but that instead of improving the standard of living in Iran, the regime has spent

Gaza is in a dire and deteriorating state. Economic activity is down, unemployment is extremely high, and long-standing problems with water, sewerage and electricity are worsening. People aren't starving, but that is virtually the only positive. Many, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, will

Comments made by US President Donald Trump about the sacking of his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson highlighted the fact that while the threat to world peace posed by North Korea has dominated the headlines in recent months, Trump is determinedly focused at least as much on another rogue state, whi

Israeli women face the same challenges as other women living in modern democracies - and that is something for which we should be grateful.

US academic and commentator Dr Daniel Pipes appeared on SkyNews' "Outsiders" program, with SkyNews' Peta Credlin (6 March) and ABC-TV's "Matter of Fact", discussing Donald Trump, Jerusalem, Israeli-Palestinian issues, Islamism, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East. 

On January 19, the Pentagon released its new National Defence Strategy for the US. The second paragraph of the 14-page declassified summary painted a dire picture. "We are facing increased global disorder, characterised by decline in the long-standing rules-based international order - creating a sec

In Israel's biggest export deal to date, Egyptian company Dolphinus Holdings has agreed to buy 64 billion cubic metres of Israeli natural gas for US$15 billion from Delek Drilling, and its US partner Noble, during a 10-year period. The gas will be delivered to Egypt from Israel's Tamar gas field, an

A new Israeli report (February 2018) reveals a dramatic trend of expanding nuclear capabilities among Arab countries over the next few years... Dozens of nuclear reactors are in various stages of planning in the UAE, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Algeria, Tunisia and even Sudan (led by the wanted war

The Iranian nuclear deal has "fatal flaws" and Australia should join other Western countries aligning with ongoing US efforts to fix them and strengthen the agreement ahead of a May 12 deadline. This was the central message delivered in briefings by visiting Middle East scholar Dr. Jonathan Schanze

This post gathers together excerpts from several talks and media appearances by Dr Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for the Defence of Democracies during his mid-February visit to Australia as a guest of AIJAC.

The details of the long-awaited US Mideast peace plan are deliberately scant. The plan is being formulated by a disciplined team led by senior advisor Jared Kushner, and no information pertaining to the proposal has been released or leaked.