Despite the strong words being used by Anthony Albanese in conjunction with the Canadian and NZ governments to indicate Australia’s deep concern against a “devastating” and “catastrophic” ground offensive in Rafah in Gaza, or the ongoing proceedings in the International Court of Justice, it is high time that Australia actually went beyond words, and start to impose sanctions against the Israeli government. Human rights must be considered in any relationship between Australia and Israel, and in particular, Australian monies must not be used to support the Occupation. (more…)
Tag: International relations
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Will Netanyahu bring down Biden?
The cabinet of Israel’s Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu is filled with religious extremists who believe that Israel’s brutality in Gaza is at God’s command. According to the Book of Joshua in the Hebrew Bible, dated by scholars to the 7th century BC, God promised the land to the Jewish people and instructed them to destroy the other nations living in the promised land. This text is used by extreme nationalists in Israel today, including by many of the 700,000 or so Israeli settlers living in occupied Palestinian lands in violation of international law. Netanyahu pursues the religious ideology of 7th century BC in the 21st century. (more…)
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A grim atlas guides NZ’s right-wing politics
The coalition that took power in New Zealand late in 2023, after a campaign centred on attacking the country’s founding Waitangi Treaty, has been exposed as hosting considerable Atlas Network infiltration. (more…)
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Time to occupy Israel
Amid end time destruction, we must liberate Gaza, march to the security wall, and Occupy Israel. (more…)
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Things are not what they seem
We are homo dramatis, the species that tells stories. Today more and more of us are rejecting America and Israel’s stories and are searching for a better script. That is a good thing because History is calling us to be actors, not spectators, in the drama playing out in Gaza. (more…)
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Arab governments fiddle while Palestine burns
The Arab response to the unfolding Palestinian catastrophe has been underwhelming. Palestinian intellectuals, journalists, activists, and the wider Palestinian public have had no illusions as to what to expect of the US political and military elites. They did, however, expect more of Arab governments. (more…)
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First the CIA, now the US Dept of Justice, could take actions that would see WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange dead
Documents obtained under FOI applications have revealed a worrying side to official Australian efforts regarding WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. (more…)
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Hebron and links to today’s far right Israeli politics
In July last year I went on a study tour to Palestine with the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN). I witnessed apartheid but also resilience and resistance. I met with Palestinian and Israeli women and men dedicated to a just outcome for Palestinians. Unlike our Western politicians they were ‘walking the talk’. (more…)
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USUKA: The hidden history of AUKUS
The Australian Citizens Party (ACP) have written to the National Anti- Corruption Commission (NACC), asking them to investigate former Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s decision to join private companies who will profit from the massive defence expenditure resulting from Morrison’s decision to establish AUKUS — a decision the ACP characterised as “extraordinary, unilateral and secretive”. Dr John Jiggens details the hidden back story of AUKUS. (more…)
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‘Devastating’: wife of imprisoned journalist Julian Assange mourns death of Alexei Navalny
“Navalny was an opposition figure, but his investigative journalism exposed the corruption of the ruling elites in Russia,” said Stella Assange. (more…)
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The moral world falls at the end game in Rafah
People in the West are Gaza-war weary. You see it in fewer reports, articles and commentary. It is an understandable by-product of the complicity-cum-impotence of Western civilisation in the face of Israeli barbarism. (more…)
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South Africa seeks ICJ emergency order to halt genocide in Rafah
South Africa has made an urgent request for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to issue emergency orders to prevent “large-scale killing, harm and destruction” from Israel’s imminent assault on Rafah. The ICJ, which is preparing to commence separate hearings on the legal status of Israeli occupation next week, has yet to respond. The world awaits the Hague’s response. (more…)
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Silencing Francesca Albanese
It was with a sense of disgust rather than despair that I read in the Jerusalem Post this week: “‘Antisemitic’ UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese banned from Israel.” We’re being gas-lighted again and this is a chance to push back against the narrative that to support victims of Israel is to somehow be antisemitic. (more…)
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How the CIA destabilises the world
There are three basic problems with the CIA: its objectives, methods, and unaccountability. Its operational objectives are whatever the CIA or the President of the United States defines to be in the U.S. interest at a given time, irrespective of international law or U.S. law. Its methods are secretive and duplicitous. Its unaccountability means that the CIA and president run foreign policy without any public scrutiny. Congress is a doormat, a sideshow. (more…)
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Complicit: Victorian government’s secret Israeli Defence Ministry MOU sparks outrage
Last month, news bubbled that the Victorian State government had inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Israeli Defence Ministry in December 2022. “As Australia’s advanced manufacturing capital, we are always exploring economic and trade opportunities for our state – especially those that create local jobs,” a government spokesperson stated in January. (more…)
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Deflect, distort, deny
In what world does a dominant state claim they have a right to defend themselves against those they have unethically, immorally and illegally imprisoned for decades, killed and persecuted without trial? (more…)
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Let them eat dirt
The final stage of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, an orchestrated mass starvation, has begun. The international community does not intend to stop it. (more…)
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The US plan to kill more Ukrainians
Biden and Schumer’s proposed $61 billion for the Ukraine war will make no difference on the battlefield except to prolong the war, the tens of thousands of deaths, and the physical destruction of Ukraine. (more…)
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Biden re-elected could be the worst strategic outcome for Australia
It matters for Australia that Biden not be re-elected to the US presidency. A Trump administration might mean domestic chaos, violence, and division for the Republic, however, the danger is that Biden would be more likely to lead the world into catastrophic war. Another Trump imperium would be sadly the least worst, yet still terrible, alternative for the world. (more…)
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Why Yang Hengjun should be released – he’s Walter Mitty not James Bond!
The standard media news bite is that Yang Hengjun is a Chinese born Australian pro-democracy writer who was unlawfully detained and now jailed for life in China. But the full story is murkier than that.
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Police debunk Pro-Israel NSW premier’s false “Gas the Jews” claim
A lie travels around the world before the truth puts on its boots. 120 days since the Australian Jewish Association AJA, alleged pro-Palestine, antiwar protesters chanted “Gas the Jews”, the truth arrives with boots and all. (more…)
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The Nord Stream Pipelines and the perils of containment
The sabotage in the Baltic Sea was the result of a long-standing US policy of driving a wedge between Russia and Western Europe. (more…)
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Hold the outrage
We need to be careful with the outrage over the sentencing of Yang Hengjun in China.
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Are Australian government ministers complicit in genocide?
The 26 January findings of the International Court of Justice relating to South Africa’s genocide claim against Israel, do not only have bearing on that state, but they trigger the obligation to prevent genocide required of all 153 state parties to the 1948 Genocide Convention, including Australia. (more…)
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The edge of war, our battle for truth
“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” George Orwell, 1984. (more…)
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The West has lost the will for peace
Détente would be good. Dialogue and diplomacy would be better. An end to US-led covert actions and cold wars would be better still. (more…)
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How to break free from slavish adherence to U.S. foreign policy
Current Australian defence policy involves close integration with the United States military in all areas, making an independent foreign policy impossible and ensuring Australia’s automatic involvement in US-instigated wars such as a war with China, our major trading partner. A policy of neutrality would free Australia from involvement in such disastrous military adventures and enable the pursuit of peaceful and mutually beneficial relations with all countries. Recent polls have shown that neutrality has considerable support in the Australian community. (more…)
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Australia’s stake in the coming U.S. presidential election
Those following the U.S. Republican presidential race will have noted from the voter polls that the issue of foreign affairs ranks amongst the lowest or is the lowest of the priority concerns that the American public sees as critical to themselves and their country. A variety of polls held before the recently concluded nomination battles in Iowa and New Hampshire revealed that less than 10% of the supporters of the main candidates identified foreign policy as their major concern. (more…)
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When escalation means escalation
In one of the world’s poorest countries, Yemen, there is a tribe called the Houthis. Emanating from that tribe to lead a larger coalition of other tribes is a group which does not want to be ruled by a Western or Saudi backed puppet government, they are called Ansar Allah, which means Supporters of god. Western media, in an effort to either simplify, or perhaps to denigrate them, have given Ansar Allah different names, they are now referred to as either Houthis or Iranian Backed Houthis, or sometimes Iranian Backed Militia, they are rarely, if ever, referred to by their correct name. There is a good reason for this; we are being spoon fed a line that this is all Iran’s doing and led along a path of escalation to include a war with Iran. (more…)
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The state of Israel: A critical Swedish assessment
Around two decades ago, the Swedish writer, Henning Mankell, took an increasingly close interest in the wretched condition of Palestinians living under punishing Israeli domination. What he saw convinced him that Israel was maintaining an apartheid state very like those he had previously visited, at length, in Southern Africa. (more…)