Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council

The bipartisan Iraq Survey Group report to US President George Bush makes some reasonable if unsurprising recommendations about military strategy in Iraq, but also two recommendations about wider Middle Eastern policy that are fundamentally flawed.

It all comes down to Israel?s occupation of the West Bank. At least that?s what one of the dominant mantras on Middle East politics would have you believe. Former US Secretary of State James Baker made that argument just this last week in Washington. The much anticipated report of Baker?s Iraq Stud

Although there have been limited missile sales by Russia and the Ukraine (to Iran), Pakistan (to Saudi Arabia) and China (to Pakistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia), by far, the biggest supplier of missile technology to the Middle East is North Korea.

The American political pendulum has swung again, this time depriving the Republicans of their majority in both houses, and casting a shadow over George W. Bush?'s Middle East policy, arguably the hallmark of his increasingly embattled presidency.

Outgoing British PM Tony Blair has been very compelling in explaining the reality of Islamist extremist terrorism and the need to counter its totalitarian ideology at its place of origin in the Middle East. He has also been a sincere friend of Israel.

The Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) welcomed the admission of Israel's Magen David Adom (MDA) humanitarian relief organisation into the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Don't imagine it will reduce the jihadist threat

It has been an eventful month, even by the standards of 21st century global politics. At either end of the Asian continent, nuclear proliferators have cast sand into the gears of the global mechanism that is designed to prevent the spread of atomic weaponry.

It is late-October of an even numbered year, and that means it's election season in the United States. And it also seems to be the season for the deployment of pseudo-science in a bald-faced campaign to sway AmericaÂ?s choice of leadership.

As many people, including moderate Muslims, have pointed out, the violent response by some Muslims to a quote used in remarks by Pope Benedict XVI, which was alleged to present Islam as violent and ?inhuman,? was more than a bit ironic. These responses were essentially variations on the theme, ?How

Anyone following the war in Lebanon in the Israeli media could not but come away engulfed in deep depression. Israelis and their media tend to focus obsessively on themselves, their own losses and failings.

After five years, we have avoided some of our worst post-9/11 fears. We have seen Bali, Madrid, London, Mumbai, and many smaller attacks by terrorists driven by the same Islamist totalitarian ideology that inspired the September 11 atrocities. But despite some attempts, there has been no successful

Despite characterisations of last month's thwarted attempt to blow up ten transatlantic flights as "homegrown," Pakistan, rather than the United Kingdom, has emerged as the epicentre of planning.

WITH the smoke still clearing from Lebanon and northern Israel, the crucial question is whether the post-war resolution will remove the sources of the violence. Otherwise, the world will witness a similar round of conflict in another few months or years, with all the suffering that will entail.

So will Al Jazeera give Australians a new perspective on the Middle East? Joining us now in Sydney to discuss this is Media analyst Dr Adel Iskander who is visiting from the American University in Washington to talk about his latest book, one of the first studies of Al Jazeera, "How the Arab News N

When the Hezbollah-Israel war began in mid-July, many in the Arab world made some startling comments. "The operations of Israel in Gaza and Lebanon are in the interest of people of Arab countries and the international community," wrote the editor of the Kuwaiti Arab Times. Milder statements in the

General Patton once observed that you don't win wars by dying for your country; you win them by making the other poor bastard die for his. But Hezbollah has turned that pearl of military wisdom on its head. These jihadists are trying to defeat Israel, not by killing Jews, but by engineering a slaug

On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said, "I genuinely believe the outcome of the present [conflict] and the emergence of a new order that will provide more stability, will help create the necessary environment that will allow me ... to create a new momentum between us and the Palestini

The Israeli Foreign Minister flicks the hair from her face and leans forward. Israel, says Tzipi Livni, is determined to follow the Gaza withdrawal with a major disengagement from the West Bank.

IN AN extraordinary statement, the editor of a Kuwaiti newspaper, the Arab Times, argued last week that ``the operations of Israel in Gaza and Lebanon are in the interest of people of Arab countries and the international community''. Milder statements in the same vein, blaming Hezbollah for the