The talented comic song-writer Tom Lehrer, from a family of secular Jewish New Yorkers, complained during the Vietnam war that nothing was funny any more. He would agree now about the war in Gaza. (more…)
Alison Broinowski
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What will our US alliance get us into from November?
A Trump administration, and even a Harris one, will pose new challenges for Australia: sycophancy or independence? Non-alignment or more complicity in US wars? (more…)
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Australia’s to-do list: stop supporting war, avoid becoming US satrap
Gathering in New York in September 2024, the world’s nations will be challenged to ‘end the scourge of war’, before it’s too late. All of them know that a nuclear cataclysm has never been so close. (more…)
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Will the Republicans end deep state wars of imperial aggression? Don’t bet on it…
The prospect of another Trump presidency and a JD Vance vice-presidency is welcomed by some and dreaded by others. A Democrat ‘October surprise’, and a presidency for Kamala Harris are possible. Even Trump in power may get Australia off several hooks. What neither of them is likely to do before election day, however, is commit to doing away with the unachievable AUKUS, the unwelcome Asian NATO, and the unwinnable war over Taiwan, as a RAND report described it in June . (more…)
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Australian Leadership to end the war on Gaza: open letter to the Prime Minister
We write to express our extreme concern that Senator Payman has resigned from the Labor Government. (more…)
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Australia, complicit in Israel’s horror, has no option but to respect ICJ ruling
Unlike the US and Israel, Australia is a signatory of the Rome Statute. It has no option but to comply with the latest ICJ decision on 19 July that the UN Security Council, the General Assembly and all states have an obligation not to recognise Israel’s occupation as legal and not to give aid or support toward maintaining it, writes Alison Broinowski.
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Envoy Envy: “Sorry Mohammed”
Becoming the latest recruit in a well-organised global program, Australia has joined the 24 nations which have appointed envoys to combat anti-Semitism. We still await an envoy for resisting Islamophobia. (more…)
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Labor’s fall: fast forward to disaster
The black and white banners unfurled from the battlements of Parliament House on 4 July made us remember 2003 when ‘No War’ appeared in red paint on the top sail of the Opera House. They lifted the spirits of all who then opposed Australia joining the war in Iraq and all who now want action from Australia to end the war against the Palestinians. (more…)
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Unrepentant, independent stirrers in election year
Imminent elections in France, the United States, and the United Kingdom are affected by two long-running concerns: Palestine and the decline of the West. Responses to them will also affect the 2025 elections in Australia. (more…)
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A lot of awful things can happen in a week
President Biden has now announced a ‘roadmap’ for Gaza that has been doing the rounds for weeks, and Australia has loyally supported it with a contribution of $A10 million. But much more time, money, and negotiations will be needed if the three-stage plan is to be a success. (more…)
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Down-payments on our own destruction
Australians used to be scared off voting Labor by Coalition predictions of debt, deficit, and disaster. Labor used to shame Liberals and Nationals with promises of spending to end child poverty, close the indigenous gap, and create a clever country. All that was before AUKUS. (more…)
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Australian moral failure on Gaza
For Australia, the urgent challenge is when will we act independently and not be associated with war crimes and genocide. (more…)
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Faced with an Israeli Pariah, Wong decides on Palestinian statehood
Foreign Minister Penny Wong conveys Australia’s decision on Friday 10 May to the UN General Assembly on whether Palestine should be admitted as a full member. This, after years of conflict over Palestine between Labor and the Coalition, and disagreement within the ALP, is a definitional moment for Australia. (more…)
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Do as I say, not as I do
Antony Blinken megaphoned the United States’ complaints about China in advance of his visit this week. They included Beijing’s unfair economic and trade practices, ‘industrial over-capacity’, and ‘genocide and crimes against humanity’ against Uyghurs. (more…)
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Australia is a silent partner in atrocity in Gaza and the West Bank
On 27 February, we wrote to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) expressing concern that Australia had failed to fulfil its obligation under the Genocide Convention (1948) to prevent any action that further risks the survival of the Palestinian people. That failure continues. (more…)
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Terrorism is what I say it is
‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less’. ‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things’. ‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all’. – Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass. (more…)
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Australia’s moment of choice: illegal war on show in 2003 Cabinet papers
What has changed since 2003? Nothing, except for the worse. Australian governments continue to accept the US enemies as their own, and shoot whoever the sheriff says. (more…)
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George Galloway’s time has come
George Galloway is a British MP again, and it’s the moment he’s been waiting for. His victory in a Rochdale by-election, he told Labour leader Sir Kier Starmer, ‘is for Gaza’. (more…)
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Australian Civil Society submits statement on Gaza genocide to the International Court of Justice
As a signatory to the Genocide Convention, Australia is obliged to prevent any action that further risks the survival of the Palestinian people and failure to do so risks complicity in genocide. In the absence of a response from the Australian government to the ICJ ruling, at least 100 groups representing civil society are observing with concern Australia’s failure to act to prevent genocide in Gaza, and have made the following submission to the International Court of Justice. (more…)
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Fractured consensus, fabricated facts, and the truth of Western wars
Why, when the majority of civil society opposes Australia going to war against China, and public confidence in the United States’ will and capacity to defend Australia is declining, do successive governments pursue AUKUS and a war with China over Taiwan with such enthusiasm? (more…)
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It will soon be too late for Gaza
Within two weeks the remaining people of Gaza, herded into Rafah, will all be dead, either from disease, starvation, or murder, an Australian medical specialist told me on Friday. Humans can’t survive in these conditions. What is Australia doing? he wanted to know. (more…)
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Enough is enough for Gaza and Assange
The International Court of Justice has responded rather toothlessly to South Africa’s appeal to the Genocide Convention. In less than a month, a similar result can be expected when Britain’s Royal Courts of Justice hear for Julian Assange’s last appeal against extradition to the United States. (more…)
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As Australia joins the US war on Yemen, Labor is a house divided
Not since the DLP split in 1955 has Labor been so divided on foreign and defence policy. And always for the same reason. (more…)
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Eyeless in Gaza
Our foreign minister’s first and hardest overseas task in 2024 is likely to be her visit to Israel. Penny Wong and other foreigners, apart from aid workers, cannot enter Gaza. This will circumscribe what she sees, whom she meets, and what she achieves. (more…)
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Yemen is none of our business
US presidents are losing their authority as the world’s policemen. Russia fights to keep Ukraine out of NATO. Israel fights in Gaza to wipe out the Palestinians. China and the Global South advance their national interests without fighting at all. All can and do ignore President Biden’s wishes. (more…)
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NATO wants Asia
Not content with expanding its membership from the original 12 to 31 nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is making a grab for a presence in the Asia Pacific as well. (more…)
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When is genocide ever balanced?
‘Balance’ between supporters of Israel and of the Palestinians is what most police and State governments in Australia say they seek. So does the ABC. But what’s happening in Gaza isn’t balanced: it is asymmetric warfare. (more…)
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Have Australian troops secretly deployed to an illegal war?
Australians have been assured by the Albanese government of greater transparency and accountability on defence. So soon after the 2022-23 parliamentary inquiry into how the country goes to war, that has already fallen over. (more…)
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The Australian Prime Minister’s talking points for Washington
Prime Minister: You may wish to draw on the following in your meetings with President Biden, Vice-President Harris, Secretary of State Blinken, and Secretary of Defence Austin. (more…)
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Collective punishment, selective truth, and slow genocide
Facts about the Israel/Palestine conflict have always been hard to come by. Some Israeli leaders are now telling more lies than many of their citizens, and former friends of Israel, can swallow. Yet Western governments still do. (more…)