Israel is about to empty Gaza
Chris Hedges

Israel is about to empty Gaza

israel-palestine politics

As Israel prepares to ethnically cleanse the whole of Gaza, it is also setting the stage for a regional crisis.

Inspiring Australia?
Kim Carr

Inspiring Australia?

With 48% of voters paying little or no attention to the campaign, according to an Essential poll, Senator Kim Carr, a former Labor minister, takes a look at how the two major parties have performed in what he describes as an uninspiring campaign.

Faith and public policy
Francis Sullivan

Faith and public policy

Easter is as good a time as any to be reminded that Christianity has a contribution in the formulation of public policy.


John Menadue's book on Israel's war against Gaza

Israel's war against Gaza

Media coverage of the war in Gaza since October 2023 has spread a series of lies propagated by Israel and the United States. This publication presents information, analysis, clarification, views and perspectives largely unavailable in mainstream media in Australia and elsewhere.

Download the PDF

Australia urgently needs to get serious about long-term climate policy – but there’s no sign of that in the election campaign
Frank Jotzo

Australia urgently needs to get serious about long-term climate policy – but there’s no sign of that in the election campaign

The federal election should be an earnest contest over the fundamentals of Australia’s climate and energy policies.

Easter: More rising than falling
Stephanie Dowrick

Easter: More rising than falling

“I call upon heaven and earth this day to witness that I have put before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life! Choose life, so that you and your descendants may live.” (Deuteronomy, 30:19)

Trump: a ridiculous ego and incredibly ignorant
Michael Keating

Trump: a ridiculous ego and incredibly ignorant

The analysis underpinning Donald Trump’s tariff policy is fatally flawed. Thus, it will fail to achieve its objective of restoring the living standards of his MAGA supporters.

Xi pushes for fair trade after Trump tariffs land
BA Hamzah

Xi pushes for fair trade after Trump tariffs land

After President Donald Trump’s decision to exempt selected electronic goods from tariffs, the gloves are temporarily off between Washington and Beijing. However, though some sanity has returned to the White House, the damage has already been done.

Humanitarian data drought: The deeper damage wrought by US aid cuts
Will Worley

Humanitarian data drought: The deeper damage wrought by US aid cuts

“We have to be extra honest, this is a challenge; it’s not easy to find a solution.”

Australia’s innovation system needs new partners
Francesca Beddie

Australia’s innovation system needs new partners

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Easter, triumph of life over death
Paul Collins

Easter, triumph of life over death

On 11 April, P&I published a wonderful Geoff Pryor cartoon showing “first semester exam results” for a self-satisfied Donald Trump lying back comfortably in a lounge chair.

Politics with Michelle Grattan: Hugh White on what the next PM should tell Trump and defending Australia – without the US
Michelle Grattan

Politics with Michelle Grattan: Hugh White on what the next PM should tell Trump and defending Australia – without the US

The Trump ascendancy has forced international economic issues and the future strategic outlook onto the Australian election agenda, even if they are at the margins.

Latest on Palestine and Israel

Israel is about to empty Gaza
Chris Hedges

Israel is about to empty Gaza

As Israel prepares to ethnically cleanse the whole of Gaza, it is also setting the stage for a regional crisis.

Gaza's trees now bear a strange fruit
Jepke Goudsmit

Gaza's trees now bear a strange fruit

Nobody following the real news, and aware of the long history of colonial occupation, ever believed that Zionist Israel would proceed into the second phase of the ceasefire as agreed.

Zionist Federation lodges Federal Court complaint against journalist Mary Kostakidis
Paul Gregoire

Zionist Federation lodges Federal Court complaint against journalist Mary Kostakidis

The Zionist Federation of Australia has filed a legal action with the Federal Court of Australia against renowned Australian journalist Mary Kostakidis relating to a complaint it first raised with the Australian Human Rights Commission in July 2024, claiming posts she made on social media platform X were antisemitic in nature.

Federal election: Time to hold MPs accountable for stance on genocide
Greg Barns

Federal election: Time to hold MPs accountable for stance on genocide

Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, and now its seizing of their land is the worst example of genocide since the horrors of the genocides of Darfur in Sudan in 2003 and Rwanda in the 1990s.

An arresting American Gaza challenge
Richard Cullen

An arresting American Gaza challenge

Recent US commentary backing President Trump’s extraordinary American Gaza takeover project has regularly stressed how critics should come up with a better plan.

Was Israel complicit in the 7 October 2023 massacre?
John Stace

Was Israel complicit in the 7 October 2023 massacre?

The dreadful atrocities by Hamas on 7 October 2023 horrified the world and triggered the destruction of Gaza, the deaths of more than 50,000 Gazan men, women and children and the wounding of tens of thousands more.

Palestine is the issue to consider when you enter the voting booth
Jepke Goudsmit

Palestine is the issue to consider when you enter the voting booth

On the day Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the election date, Jews Against the Occupation '48 issued an open statement addressing the current government in the hope that Labor would shift its policies on Israel/Palestine.

Peter Slezak's speech to the University of Technology Sydney rally on 26 March
Peter Slezak

Peter Slezak's speech to the University of Technology Sydney rally on 26 March

Remarks made by UNSW academic Peter Slezak at a rally at UTS on 26 March, have attracted considerable negative coverage in the Murdoch media. [The Australian and The Daily Telegraph] Pearls And Irritations is carrying the full text of the speech so that readers can make up their own minds.


John Menadue

Support our independent media with your donation

Pearls and Irritations leads the way in raising and analysing vital issues often neglected in mainstream media. Your contribution supports our independence and quality commentary on matters importance to Australia and our region.

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Latest on China

Xi pushes for fair trade after Trump tariffs land
BA Hamzah

Xi pushes for fair trade after Trump tariffs land

china economy politics usa

After President Donald Trump’s decision to exempt selected electronic goods from tariffs, the gloves are temporarily off between Washington and Beijing. However, though some sanity has returned to the White House, the damage has already been done.

When elephants clash: The strategic logic behind Trump’s tariffs and China’s response
Christine Loh

When elephants clash: The strategic logic behind Trump’s tariffs and China’s response

The world is mesmerised — and unsettled — by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Looking for a fair wind: Reflections on Australia’s maritime security
Jocelyn Chey

Looking for a fair wind: Reflections on Australia’s maritime security

Australians may miss out on opportunities to reinforce our regional security if they are over-concerned about Chinese aggression in the South Pacific and do not take the opportunity of engaging in regional dialogue to resolve common problems.


More from Pearls and Irritations


Latest letters to the editor

The Enemy

K M — Canberra

Thank you for reposting Peter Varghese's AFR article, which I wouldn't otherwise have seen. Could you also please pursue some other perspectives? With his strong international affairs credentials I hesitate to question what I have missed or failed to grasp in the underpinning narrative about The Enemy to us, that is China. It's not as if we are located where Taiwan is, for example, or even — say — Singapore which hasn't seemed to have taken sides. I struggle to understand the underlying animosity towards China in a discussion of next steps in what he says is becoming a...
Politics with Michelle Grattan

Robin Wingrove — WA

After many decades of listening to the reds under the bed sub-text in Australian journalism, it is totally refreshing to see that others more capable than me can see the reality that our interests, in all aspects, are those of our region. If only such common sense was displayed, in what to my mind is a totally discredited Australian media outlook that is Sino-phobic and completely blind to the hysteria, lies and machinations of our good friend, the US. Their interests should certainly not be ours.
'Temu Trump' strikes yet again!

Wes Mason — Gisborne

There have been times in the past when I thoroughly disagreed with a lot of what Ross Gittins wrote. This is not one of those occasions. His article explains exactly why Peter Dutton should not ever be let near the nearest Canberra roundabout to The Lodge. Dutton's pathetic claims on 15 April about the Indonesian revelations, suggesting it is a failure on the part of the prime minister, the defence minister and the foreign minister not to know about a questionable report in an aviation journal, when even the Indonesian defence minister and/or foreign minister were unaware, is...
National security in the years ahead

Doug Foskey — Tregeagle

I have concerns that Australia is moving in the wrong direction. I feel we should replace AUKUS with a more future-based military need, which I feel is not against China. Australia has skills that are not being utilised to develop drone technology, for instance, as well as anti-drone technology. My concerns about buying from the US is that American equipment is usually so poorly designed. Also, any foreign-designed software system is often built with backdoors that enable the equipment to be disabled. (The Ukranians discovered this during their drone attack on Russian shipping). I feel Australia needs to...



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