Top 5
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Is Trump’s long shadow a chance for the Australia-China relationship?
China has recently praised Australia’s independent foreign policy, with Xi Jinping and Anthony Albanese holding friendly talks at the G20 and planning a future meeting in China. This highlights Beijing’s effort to court traditional US allies amid concerns over a potential second Donald Trump term in the White House. Continue reading »
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What the Australian War Memorial should be doing about children
Give me the child for the first seven years and I will give you the man was a Jesuit maxim attributed to Ignatius Loyola. It is probably apocryphal, but it is an approach many have taken over the years to implant ideas in young minds. Continue reading »
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Netanyahu and Australia
Netanyahu has demonstrated that he has the complete measure of the Labor-Coalition political class, that he only has to snap his fingers and bark an order and they will all do his bidding and follow his instructions with alacrity. Continue reading »
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AUKUS is an intergenerational disaster. It will cause long term detriment to Australia’s security
Australia is a part of a hostile military alliance directed at China. “Interoperability” or “interchangeability” means we’re now a US pawn, tied to its coattails. So that’s the job of every Australian: push for more information, keep talking about why AUKUS is an utter disaster and why it commits us to a costly and dangerous Continue reading »
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We’ve entered the era of gutless government
Sorry to tell you that I’m finishing this year most unimpressed by Anthony Albanese and his government. I’m still reeling from his last two weeks of parliament, pushing through 45 bills just to show how much he’d achieved and give himself the option of calling an election early next year should he see a break Continue reading »
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History repeats in the most chilling of ways
Earlier this month, the Sydney Morning Herald published a cartoon by the irrepressible Cathy Wilcox. I gazed at the image for a long time. My first thought was that she’ll pay a price for this, and so might the Herald. And, true to form, there was indeed a strong reaction in some quarters. Continue reading »
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China holds the world’s climate future in its hands
China has experienced “the greatest development surge in human history driven above all by an unprecedented and spectacular surge in urbanisation,” writes historian Adam Tooze. “As a physical productive apparatus China completely dwarfs the United States (and any other comparator)”. It is the nation that holds the world’s climate future in its hands, writes Patrick Continue reading »
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Adass Israel synagogue is not your political football
The Adass Israel synagogue in Ripponlea, Melbourne was firebombed this week in a horrific attack. Continue reading »
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Albo has to go
Anthony Albanese is not our best leader. He should go now. Continue reading »
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Endless onslaught: Would Israel’s Mordechai be attacked as ‘antisemitic’ in Australia?
Haaretz, Israel’s oldest and most widely known newspaper, has just published a long, roughly 8,000 word feature article, about the work of Lee Mordechai, the Associate Professor of History at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He has compiled on line a massive report entitled “Bearing Witness to the Israel-Gaza War.” Continue reading »
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Offshore people dumping by a spooked government
The Albanese Labor Government has been spooked by recent High Court decisions which protect the human rights of non-citizens who cannot be returned to their home country because they are owed protection obligations. Continue reading »
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The end of pluralism in the Middle East
A truly seismic change in the Middle East appears to be happening very fast. At its heart is a devil’s bargain – Turkey and the Gulf States accept the annihilation of the Palestinian nation and creation of a Greater Israel, in return for the annihilation of the Shia minorities of Syria and Lebanon and the Continue reading »
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The Melbourne synagogue fire: Antisemitism, political meddling and exceptional victimhood
In his ongoing campaign to pad and shield criticism of Israel in the conduct of its war of gross bloodletting in Gaza, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rarely misses a beat to attack critics. It has become clear that even mere disagreement from long standing allies suggests wobbliness and tilting in the direction of antisemitism. Continue reading »
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To avoid recession, cut interest rates next week
Interest rates settings depend on forecasts of price inflation, wages and unemployment. There is now sufficient evidence to suggest that the Reserve Bank should begin to cut interest rates soon and arguably at its December Board Meeting. The balance of risks if it stays there much longer is that the economy will fall into a Continue reading »
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Courage in public office and Australia’s recognition of Palestine
“No room for robust debate” within ALP caucus. “There is so much courage that Australia could exercise. We could come out and be the real champions of human rights, and human life, that we claim to be – especially within the Labor party.” High profile Senator Fatima Payman and former Labor Senator Margaret Reynolds discuss Continue reading »
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The continuing ‘struggle for Syria’
The dramatic ‘rebel’ advance into Aleppo dominates the headlines. In history rather than headlines, however, the importance of current events shrinks into relativity, as the ‘West’ and its regional allies have been tearing apart, or trying to tear apart, Syria for more than a century. This is what the journalist and historian Patrick Seale called Continue reading »
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Executive Council of Australian Jewry’s Isi Leibler was a ‘covert agent of Israeli intelligence’
When I began editing Quadrant with Peter Coleman in 1989, my co-editorship was soon overwhelmed by the most unpleasant controversy of my life, at least thus far. Continue reading »
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The holocaust of our time
If the world were watching the livestreamed systematic annihilation of Jews in real time, there would be no debating whether that constituted terrorism or genocide. Continue reading »
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Climate policy is on a collision course with physical reality
There is a chasm in outlook between the global climate policy-making elite with their focus on distant goals, market solutions and non-disruptive change, and activists and key researchers who see the world hurtling towards climate breakdown and social collapse. Continue reading »
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‘Dark day for humanity’ as Australia chooses cruelty in Migration Bill changes
Refugee and refugee support groups Australia-wide are deeply concerned about the extremely damaging implications of Australia’s new migration laws which are founded on principles of punishment rather than human rights protection. Continue reading »
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Does Albo even deserve to win?
Not since Alaska has the US won a nation so cheaply. Continue reading »
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South Korea pays the price for Ukraine’s fake news on North Korean troops
Some stand to benefit from the deluge of fake news from the war, while others could pay dearly. Continue reading »
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The Australian dream
Former Australian prime minister Paul Keating — who is staunchly against AUKUS — said, of Australians, that we are not content with our geography. Continue reading »
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ABC News’ death rattle
I’d like to think that ABC News’ revamped online iteration is like an ancient Aunty’s death rattle. Surely, its demise must follow. Continue reading »
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A triumph for greed over commonsense and humanity
For the third year in a row the nations of the world, meeting in solemn climate conclave, have vowed to cook their children and grandchildren alive. Continue reading »
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The politics of ignoring genocide
Jews in Germany, Bosnians in former Yugoslavia, Tutsis in Rwanda, and now Palestinians in Gaza. In a recent interview, Francesca Albanese posed a rhetorical question: What kind of monsters have we become to see the live-streamed genocide of Palestinians and not act? Continue reading »
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What ails America – and how to fix it
America is a country of undoubted vast strengths—technological, economic, and cultural—yet its government is profoundly failing its own citizens and the world. Trump’s victory is very easy to understand. It was a vote against the status quo. Whether Trump will fix—or even attempt to fix—what really ails America remains to be seen. Continue reading »
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In the death throes of Ukraine’s lost war, we witness the birth of WWIII
In the space of a couple of days this week two completely unprecedented attacks occurred that have the potential to rewrite world history. The US and UK directly attacked Russia and, for the first time ever in war, an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile was fired – by Russia. Naturally, most people in the West paid Continue reading »
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Distorting elections: Australia’s professional politicians feather their own nests
The ALP is full of legends – of which many old party folk are defiantly proud – of political skullduggery. There have been stuffed ballot boxes, and mysteriously disappearing ones, and forged minutes of branch meetings. Continue reading »
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Denial of Australian visa to anti-Palestinian racists disturbs some Liberal Party leaders
On 21 November 2024, the Australian government refused to grant a visa to former Israeli minister Ayelet Shaked, known for her anti-Palestinian views. She had been invited to attend a security conference in Canberra and other events organised by the Israeli lobby, Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC). Continue reading »