Gunboat hypocrisy in the Caribbean
Mahir Ali

Gunboat hypocrisy in the Caribbean

Even as Donald Trump crisscrosses the globe, bringing his purported peacemaking skills to parts of the world that did not even know they were at war, his administration has openly been preparing for militarised regime change in Venezuela. Neighbouring Colombia too isn’t safe.

The easy way or the hard way to the same result
Alison Broinowski

The easy way or the hard way to the same result

National leaders deceive most people most of the time. Israel’s long, atrocious, US-backed assault on the Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon is the latest example, as are their joint attacks on Syria, Yemen, and Iran.

Commonwealth administrative reform remains up the creek
Paddy Gourley

GOURLEY ON GOVERNMENT

Commonwealth administrative reform remains up the creek

The results of a recent survey of community satisfaction and trust in Commonwealth public services are not to be sneezed at.


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Why the annexation of the West Bank matters to all of us
Meg Schwarz

Why the annexation of the West Bank matters to all of us

Between 1 January and 30 September 2025, Israeli authorities carried out 1288 demolitions of Palestinian-owned structures in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Getting away with murder
Julie Macken

Getting away with murder

What happens in Australia if Israel gets away with genocide?

The (grossly misleading) Boyer lecture: Some things it forgot to mention
Ted Trainer

The (grossly misleading) Boyer lecture: Some things it forgot to mention

One of the lectures, entitled “Australia is fricking amazing!” by Justin Wolfers was an ecstatic eulogy celebrating Australia’s achievements and institutions.

The morality we need, the asylum they seek
Duncan Graham

The morality we need, the asylum they seek

Like many grumpy hacks from an age of lost standards, I've belittled colleagues' usage of the perpendicular pronoun. We're not the Mums needing attention – only the midwives bringing the stories of others into the world. We report and depart.

The fog of electricity price disinformation
David Leitch

The fog of electricity price disinformation

The federal government should collect and make available data that shows comparative wholesale electricity costs on a global basis and where Australia sits. This information should show average spot prices, average industrial prices.

ASEAN leads response to the threat of global economic disorder
Shiro Armstrong

ASEAN leads response to the threat of global economic disorder

Malaysia and ASEAN’s leadership in response to rising protectionism and the threat to ASEAN and global prosperity and security has so far been a masterclass, punctuated by the convening of a Leaders’ Meeting for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) on 27 October 2025.

Daydreaming about a legend: Review of Hawke PM: The making of a legend
Paul Malone

Daydreaming about a legend: Review of Hawke PM: The making of a legend

David Day’s book Hawke PM is the latest in a long list of books covering the Hawke era and may well be the last we’ll see for quite some time.

Trump’s risky American economy
Michael Keating

Trump’s risky American economy

Trump’s tariffs, migration and fiscal policies are endangering the American economy, and risk destroying American claims to global leadership.

Latest on Palestine and Israel

The easy way or the hard way to the same result
Alison Broinowski

The easy way or the hard way to the same result

National leaders deceive most people most of the time. Israel’s long, atrocious, US-backed assault on the Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon is the latest example, as are their joint attacks on Syria, Yemen, and Iran.

Why the annexation of the West Bank matters to all of us
Meg Schwarz

Why the annexation of the West Bank matters to all of us

Between 1 January and 30 September 2025, Israeli authorities carried out 1288 demolitions of Palestinian-owned structures in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

The unvanquished will: Gaza’s triumph of spirit against the architecture of genocide
Ramzy Baroud

The unvanquished will: Gaza’s triumph of spirit against the architecture of genocide

For the last two years, my social media algorithm has been relentlessly dominated by Gaza, particularly by the voices of ordinary Gazans, displaying a blend of emotions that centres on two core principles: grief and defiance.

From illusion to real peace: Trump’s test in Gaza and Ukraine
Jeffrey D. Sachs,  Sybil Fares

From illusion to real peace: Trump’s test in Gaza and Ukraine

Real peace demands Palestinian statehood, Ukrainian neutrality and the courage to defy the war lobby.

The three core myths driving Israel’s war on Palestine
Raghid Nahhas

The three core myths driving Israel’s war on Palestine

Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, one of the most outspoken moral critics within Israel itself, once summarised what he called the “three core values of Israeli society”: the belief that Jews are the chosen people; that they are the world’s ultimate victims; and that Palestinians are not equal human beings.

It's no longer possible to be a Palestinian in the West Bank
Gideon Levy

It's no longer possible to be a Palestinian in the West Bank

In the West Bank, no one has heard about the ceasefire in Gaza: not the army, not the settlers, not the Civil Administration and, of course, not the three million Palestinians who live under their tyranny. They do not feel the end of the war in the slightest.

The future of Palestine: What Australia must do
Stuart Rees

The future of Palestine: What Australia must do

Responding to continuing slaughter in Gaza is a test of Australian politicians and the government’s courage.

Australia’s role in the F-35 supply chain – what a tangled web we weave!
Jessica Morrison

Australia’s role in the F-35 supply chain – what a tangled web we weave!

The government’s ducking and weaving about military exports to Israel went up a whole new notch this month, arguing in Senate estimates that just because something was shipped from Australia, doesn’t mean it was exported from Australia.


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

Latest on China

Trump's rare earths deal to counter China was a badly needed 'Sputnik moment'
Alan Kohler

Trump's rare earths deal to counter China was a badly needed 'Sputnik moment'

The other day US President Donald Trump said: With a communist in charge? Look, you just go back a thousand years, it's been done many times, a thousand years, it's never worked once.

As Nobel laureates show, the US can’t take tech lead over China for granted
Alex Lo

As Nobel laureates show, the US can’t take tech lead over China for granted

It’s hard to tell who will ultimately win the tech race, but this year’s Nobel economics prize gives us some clues.

Trump, Xi and the ‘green paradox’: How China is building a climate-proof future
Holly Chik

Trump, Xi and the ‘green paradox’: How China is building a climate-proof future

Ambitious transformation of the country’s energy consumption and urban planning makes economic sense too, analysts say.


John Menadue

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More from Pearls and Irritations


Latest letters to the editor

Just who are the superior people?

David Thompson — CLAYTON

As the common myth uttered by Gideon Levy, that Israeli ideology regards Palestinians as an inferior people remains to the fore, reading Ramzy Baroud (P & I's 29/10): The unvanquished will: Gaza’s triumph of spirit against the architecture of genocide one finds a more than arguable case that Palestinians are actually the superior people. To say that “Gazans are built differently” is a massive understatement... I still find their collective will astonishing. Why is five-year-old Maria Hannoun, one of Gaza’s many influencers, continuing to recite the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish and sending fiery messages to US President Donald Trump...
Have a heart, Kos!

Stephen Saunders — O'Connor

For pollster Kos Samaras, linking immigration to housing is to be patronised as a “casual narrative” of “cultural threat”, and in terms of voter profiles it is “structurally impossible” for the Coalition to offer low migration. It’s not just a cultural narrative, Kos. After a quarter-century of expansive real-estate incentives and endless mass migration (under Albo now, it’s 250,000-300,000 minimum annually), realistic capacity to pay off a house is becoming “structurally impossible” outside of the top 1-20% who both control and facilitate governments. Do you even care? Why aren’t you using your silky skills to urge any and...
The con of the rules-based international order

Les Macdonald — Balmain NSW 2041

That anyone with a functioning brain cell can take seriously the ostentatious pomposity of the statements that emanate from the mouths of the servile politicians of the West, about the importance of the rules-based international order, is a tribute to the success of blatant dishonesty over patent reality . That is bad enough but the fact is the so-called Fourth Estate, that ostentatiously promotes itself as holding power to account, simply acts as a megaphone for the barefaced failure of the West to comply even with the rules that they have just made up, let alone completely ignoring international...
Dirty doings finally exposed

Les Macdonald — Balmain NSW 2041

I have long been an admirer of Jenny and her dogged and courageous attempt to expose the back-door dealings that exposed the fatal weakness at the heart of our democracy. The fact that we still call ourselves a democracy is a tribute to the continued fraudulent reasoning of our often hereditary elites to describe a system where the people's will is subject to the ultimate power of cancellation by a feudal sovereign of a long dead empire on the other side of the planet. If democracy is as Lincoln said in his Gettysburg address government of the people,...



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