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International Security
"The Point of No Return" on Iran?/Bushehr
Today's Update leads with a lengthy and controversial article that is generating much comment in the US. Top journalist Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic has written an extended feature piece dealing with the possibility that Israel may launch an air...
Published: 18/08/2010 read more
AIJAC welcomes further Australian sanctions on Iran
The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) today welcomed the Australian Government's announcement that further sanctions are to be placed on Iran. AIJAC National Chairman Mark Leibler AC said, "Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons is a dest...
Published: 30/07/2010 read more
"Wikileaks" and Afghanistan
Much is being written about the exposure of 92,000 documents related to the Afghanistan conflict, released by the dissident activist organisation Wikileaks. This Update looks at the details and implications of these released documents....
Published: 30/07/2010 read more
Iran "vulnerable" to sanctions
IRAN is much more vulnerable to pressure than the West realises, and ratcheting up the pressure with sanctions may halt its nuclear weapons program, according to an Israeli specialist on Iran. The European Union's history with Iran taught it that it...
Published: 29/07/2010 read more
Election Face-off
Despite the obvious concern that accompanies any change of government - particularly one that had ruled for 11 years - by and large the changeover to the Australian Labor Party saw a continuity of bipartisanship on a raft of Israel and Jewish commun...
Published: 27/07/2010 read more
The Reset Button
All of a sudden we have seen a different type of meeting between Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and Obama. And a major effort on the part of the President, for the first time since his election, to be nice to the Israeli people by giving an interview...
Published: 27/07/2010 read more
Lebanon, Hezbollah and UNIFIL
Following the revelation earlier this month by Israel security forces of specific details about Hezbollah military infrastructure in Southern Lebanon, Hezbollah has initiated some confrontations between its supporters and the UN's UNIFIL peacekeeper...
Published: 23/07/2010 read more
Sanctions, Sabotage, Inspections: Tools for Stopping Iranian Nuke
Today's Update looks at the efficacy of various diplomatic and intelligence tools for attempting to stop the Iranian nuclear program. First up are Ephraim Asculai and Emily Landau, top proliferation experts from Tel Aviv University, who discuss the ...
Published: 20/07/2010 read more
Turkey, Iran and UN Sanctions
This Update looks at Turkey's regional policy, including its relations with Iran, especially in the wake of the recent UN and unilateral sanctions passed to deter Iran's illegal nuclear activities. It also contains some new informed advice on how th...
Published: 09/07/2010 read more
Essay: Rational Action
One of the few points on which there is wide agreement is that for deterrence to work, the leaders of the nations that command nuclear arms must be rational. The same holds for terrorists who may acquire nuclear arms one way or another. In effect, a...
Published: 30/06/2010 read more
Additional Autonomous Sanctions on Iran
This Update features analysis of the increasing trend of announcements of additional autonomous sanctions directed against Iran's nuclear program in the wake of the passage of the UN Security Council's new sanctions resolution, earlier this month. A...
Published: 25/06/2010 read more
The New Iran Sanctions Resolution
As readers are probably aware, a new UN Security Council sanctions resolution directed against Iran's nuclear program was passed on Wednesday. This Update is devoted to analysis of the likely effect and efficacy of the compromise deal on sanctions t...
Published: 11/06/2010 read more
The Wider Context of the Flotilla Tragedy/ The NPT Conference outcome
Today's Update continues our coverage of the Gaza flotilla tragedy, with articles that attempt to put this specific event into the wider regional and strategic context. It also has some new expert comment on the controversial outcome of the Nuclear ...
Author: AIJAC staff Published: 04/06/2010 read more
Scribblings: Nuclear Nonsense
The evidence offered by the Guardian does show that South Africa was interested in nuclear weapons, but the evidence that Israel was prepared to offer them such weapons is, at best, highly inferential....
Author: Tzvi Fleischer Published: 31/05/2010 read more
Are they enough?
Israeli officials privately noted that the draft resolution lacked the tough provisions that Jerusalem believes are necessary to force Iran to rethink its policy. In this regard, the absence of sanctions targeting the energy sector is seen as of par...
Author: External author Published: 31/05/2010 read more
New Security Council Sanctions on Iran Proposed
Today's Update analyses the proposed upgraded Security Council sanctions on Iran, addressing the latter's illegal nuclear program. We open with an analysis of the proposed sanctions by three writers from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy...
Author: AIJAC staff Published: 26/05/2010 read more
Iran's latest nuclear "deal" with Turkey and Brazil
Readers will have heard in the media about Iran's nuclear "deal" with Turkey and Brazil, which apparently meets some of the goals of a deal Iran backed out of last October which would have removed Iran's low-enriched uranium from the country in exch...
Author: AIJAC staff Published: 18/05/2010 read more
Iran ups the stakes at UN
Today's Update looks at the shameless spectacle of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's address to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference at the United Nations this week, which saw the delegations from the US, Britain, France, Aus...
Author: AIJAC staff Published: 07/05/2010 read more
Editorial: Nuclear Elephant in the Room
Yet Obama's Nuclear Security Summit largely ignored the Iranian nuclear elephant in the room. His sanctions efforts against Iran are likewise taking much too long, as the Iranians continually announce the achievement of new nuclear milestones while ...
Author: Colin Rubenstein Published: 27/04/2010 read more
Nuclear Fallout
Critics may complain that the nuclear summit was a glorified photo-op. But even merely gathering world leaders to discuss nuclear terrorism is an achievement....
Author: External author Published: 27/04/2010 read more
Creativity and realism required for success in Middle East talks
YESTERDAY in Washington, President Barack Obama formally launched the resumption of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians after a 19-month hiatus. International expectations for the talks are low because there appear to be a number of fac...
03/09/2010 read more
Hamas, Israeli Security and Peacemaking
Following the Israeli-Palestinian Summit in Washington yesterday (in which the details of discussions were kept discreet), this Update features some comments on Hamas' role as a potential spoiler in the wake of the Hamas terror attack Tuesday, which...
03/09/2010 read more
Today's Israeli-Palestinian Summit in Washington
As readers are doubtless aware, Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu is meeting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas today in Washington in a summit designed to formally re-launch direct Israeli Palestinian peace talks. This Update offers backgrou...
02/09/2010 read more
Editorial: In the Balance
The next prime minister of Australia should be whoever can more convincingly promise a stable coalition able to undertake the responsibilities of government more effectively. Overseas and Australian state government experience demonstrates that s...
27/08/2010 read more
Scribblings: The BBC Pre-empts Flotilla Inquiries
Israelis have been much focused in recent weeks on the testimony of various top officials to the Turkel inquiry - looking into the flotilla clash off Gaza on May 31 that left nine Turkish activists dead. On top of this, the Israeli government has ma...
27/08/2010 read more
AIR New Zealand: A Tzur Thing
When Israel reopened an embassy in Wellington in April this year, it seemed obvious that the new Ambassador, Shemi Tzur, and his staff had a big job in front of them. Almost a decade without on-the-ground representation, as well as some years of tro...
27/08/2010 read more
Fall of the Teflon Terrorist?
On Aug. 9, 2010, members of Indonesia's elite counter-terrorist police force arrested the militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir as part of their ongoing investigations into a terrorist training camp discovered in February 2010 in Aceh, plots to kill Pres...
27/08/2010 read more
Israel's Endangered Deterrence
There are few journalists specialising in strategic and security affairs more experienced than Ron Ben Yishai. After fighting as a paratrooper in the Six Day War, Ben Yishai turned to journalism full time. Since then he has covered, from the battlef...
27/08/2010 read more
Hamas' Gaza Killing Spree
News stories about bodies found at sea are occasionally published by Gaza newspapers. The number of such bodies isn't huge, yet not all those drowning victims chose to go swimming voluntarily. The Gazans who found their death at sea include mid-leve...
27/08/2010 read more
The State of the Iranian Revolution
Since coming to power in 1979, the Islamic Revolution in Iran has had two main aims. First, it wished to remain in power and if this was the aim of the Islamic Revolution, 31 years later, it has been successful. But revolutions don't come about simp...
27/08/2010 read more
Essay: Decade of Disappointment
It's been a decade since Israeli and Palestinian leaders met as peacemakers only to part at loggerheads. Now, with most of the Camp David summit's protagonists long gone from the scene, that ill-fated conclave's military, diplomatic and political re...
27/08/2010 read more
The Last Word: Ideology Above Humanity
What struck me then, and continues to strike me, was their complete lack of concern, sometimes even contempt, for the human beings they claimed to champion and the hatred for the human beings on the other side of the political divide. There was no r...
27/08/2010 read more