After decades of US-backed regime-change wars across the Middle East, Iran now stands alone. A new conflict would deepen regional instability and test Australia’s willingness to say no.
Alison Broinowski
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Herzog greeted by mass protest despite limits on marching
Denied permission to march, thousands still gathered in central Sydney to protest the visit of Israel’s president. The demonstration revealed both the scale of public anger and the state’s increasingly fraught response to dissent.
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After Gaza, the next target is Iran
US–Israel manoeuvring over Gaza is already widening the conflict. As Sudan burns and propaganda intensifies, Iran may be the next target — with Australia again at risk of being drawn in. (more…)
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Israel, lies and videotape
We have heard a lot in the last two years and one month about Jewish Australians feeling unsafe or intimidated. (more…)
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Australia can’t get away with genocide
Australia repeatedly fights as the deputy sheriff in our ally’s wars. Afterwards, our contributions are forgotten and we continue to dodge blame for the disastrous results, including war crimes. Can we get away with this over Gaza? (more…)
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The easy way or the hard way to the same result
National leaders deceive most people most of the time. Israel’s long, atrocious, US-backed assault on the Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon is the latest example, as are their joint attacks on Syria, Yemen, and Iran. (more…)
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Palestinians out by 7 October?
No wonder Israel’s prime minister was grinning. He had his fourth meeting this year with President Trump. He also got what he came for: permission to “finish the job”. (more…)
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Lies and hypocrisy are now the truth
Many governments that call themselves democratic and law-abiding are not. The United States has set the pace in the hypocrisy stakes for years. Its fascist tendencies are now clearly on display. (more…)
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The UN turns 80
The most important agenda item for the United Nations General Assembly this month will be the future of Palestine. But Palestinian leaders will be unable to discuss it, because they will be absent. (more…)
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Terrorists are them, never us
Almost as quickly as Anthony Albanese signed up for AUKUS, he has now agreed to join the United States in making Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) the 32nd terrorist organisation designated by Australia. (more…)
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Eleven opportunities for Australia
The Pacific Peace Conference was held in Brisbane on 2 August 2025. (more…)
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Watermelons in the rain
We knew a thousand police couldn’t arrest 90,000 of us, so the march for Palestine was always going to happen. An 11th-hour decision by Justice Belinda Rigg just made it legal. (more…)
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Two remote islands with a common purpose
After a decades-long fight, Prime Minister Starmer in late May gave up Britain’s possession of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean, while Australia keeps the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, our most distant Indian Ocean territory. The United States military has continuing use of both. (more…)
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Build-up to the ultimate surveillance state has just begun
While most of us are transfixed daily by more horrific atrocities, potentially deadlier operations are likely to far outlast the genocide in Gaza. (more…)
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Palestinian genocide: No more selective indignation
Australians are joining the chorus of outrage at Israel’s escalating carnage in Gaza and the West Bank. They include Jewish Australians, but few of our political representatives. (more…)
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If I were foreign minister…
I don’t want to be Australia’s foreign minister, and here’s why: I would not be good at promoting Australia’s current foreign policy to the world. That’s also why I stopped being a diplomat in 1996. (more…)
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Australia should inform itself as to who the real terrorists are
Australians may smirk at the embarrassment of Donald Trump’s neophyte administration over “Signalgate”. Particularly those old enough to remember how our allies punished Canberra for past intelligence scandals and pushed us to set up ASIO. (more…)
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Hurry up and wait
One principle of American military affairs has been said since the 1940s to be “hurry up and wait”. That certainly applies to AUKUS, an agreement so urgent that in September 2021 Prime Minister Scott Morrison gave Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese only 24 hours to agree to it. (more…)
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An open letter to ABC chairman Kim Williams
Dear Mr Williams, In June 2024, on assuming the chair of the ABC, you expressed a desire to see the organisation develop a clearer sense of purpose aligned with its charter and, having gained clarity about its purpose, it should seek to understand how that purpose can be embodied in its offerings. (more…)
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Who feels unsafe and why?
When Parliament returns, the government will be pressed to enact a law making it a criminal offence to threaten violence against people or groups on racial or religious grounds, or to threaten them about gender identity or sexual orientation. Before February, we need to know more about what caused a recent spate of nasty incidents in Sydney. (more…)
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Netanyahu intends to attack Gaza as soon as hostages are released
Expressions of delight at the ceasefire – which was preceded by an 11th hour Israeli onslaught in Gaza, killing at least 80 – are premature. Netanyahu has repeatedly said attacks against Hamas will resume after Israel gets some hostages back. (more…)
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The US war on terror strikes home
Americans were shocked by two fatal events in the United States on New Year’s day 2025, and one was quickly called ‘Islamist terrorism’. Yet the US supports Muslim terrorist groups in Syria.
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Are we the terrorists?
It’s ten years since the Lindt Café siege by a member of Islamic State who, despite multiple warnings, was not of concern to ASIO or the police. Yet Man Haron Monis’ attack had all the commonly accepted characteristics of terrorism. (more…)
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If you want peace, don’t prepare for war
In a series of baby but not blindfolded steps, our Government is making Australia ready for war. The latest of these appeared in the small print of a memorandum on 27 November. (more…)
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The Forever War won’t end until we face the State terrorists
At the Imperial War Museum in London, there’s a moving display about Nazis and the Holocaust, the ‘ultimate human evil’. Seeing it in May this year, I wondered if eventually there will be an exhibition of the Palestinian genocide. (more…)
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Ending Apartheid: Think local, act global
Boycotts, divestments and sanctions are back. Students are urging universities to reveal their investments and connections with Israel, and to end them. Local councils in Victoria and New South Wales have been quick to do the same. (more…)
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Make aid reach Gaza, but not until children starve to death for another 30 days, says US
For years, the Israeli authorities have restricted food, fuel and essential supplies to the Palestinians in Gaza, turning the deliveries on and off at will. This contributed to the desperate Hamas outbreak on 7 October 2023. Since the beginning of this month, Israel has stopped almost all the deliveries. (more…)
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Australia’s shame
Open Letter to Antonio Guterres on the Australian Government’s failure to publicly defend the office of the United Nations Secretary General. (more…)
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Never ending war on terror keeps us anxious, fearful, committed
President Bush declared the War on Terror in 2001. Dr Alison Broinowski AM, Australians for War Power Reforms (AWPR), former diplomat and Author, argues that America and its Western Allies including Australia have been involved in multiple ‘never ending’ foreign wars with no declaration in sight of victory. (more…)
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Julian Assange gets a positive hearing at last
Appearing in public for the first time since he returned in June to Australia from Britain’s Belmarsh Prison, Julian Assange will give his first official testimony since 2019 on 1 October. (more…)