Israel: International Rogue?
Written in response to the Australian media’s reporting during the heightened tensions during the recent Israeli military offensive in Gaza, this article offers an alternative perspective of Israel’s international role. To date, Israel has been able to avoid internation sanction, but this article outlines Israel’s alleged violations of international law. Noah Bassil puts forward an informed argument that we should not accept media coverage of the Middle East at face value. He reveals the many layers that exist in international relations and the lack of accountability that is present even at the highest level. At the very least, this article makes it impossible to think about the Middle East and Israel in black and white terms. Another of our feature articles in this edition examines anti-Semitism in the UK and Germany. We invite comment and further contributions on related issues.
Noah Bassil
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There is No Alternative? The Financial Crisis and the Problem of Bail-Outs
This article describes the vulnerability and virtues of the traditional banking system and discusses current financial bail-out scenarios around the world, which involve two unconventional policy steps. Firstly, loans of liquidity are being provided to financial intermediaries with marketable assets. Secondly, equity is being provided by governments to failing institutions. What is the jurisdiction for such virtually unprecedented interventions?
Tony Aspromourgos
On the Aesthetics of Sustainability: Moral Struggles in Suburbia
“Me and my wife are cognisant that we should look to our individual sense of responsibility for the sustainability of society… we are sensitive to the ethical norms in our neighbourhood around the wartering of gardens. We stick to appointed watering days – where we can, will carry bath water when our tender plants are threatened by heat, and have diverted down-pipes from storm water to garden.” Trowbride explores the spectrum of neighbourhood attitudes to water restrictions, and examines bith the social significance that it has taken on in surburbia, as well as the implications for man’s relationship with the natural world within his sphere of experience.
Roger Trowbridge
Comparative Anti-Semitism: Modern Britain and Germany
Attention has been drawn to a recent resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe, and in particular, of anti-Semetic actions such as the desecration of cemetaries and assaults on individuals. The reality of this is undeniable or europe as a whole. John Perkins argues, however, that in the study of anti-Semitism, both currently and historically, there is a need to disaggregate the continent into its specific national and ethnic parts. The article therefore focuses on a comparison between Britain and Germany.
John Perkins
“War Memorials are Idols”: The Freethought Controversy of 1931
George Parsons
Review Essay – Miners and the Indigenes: Poles Apart in the Tropics and the Tundra
Tony Smith
Astronomy: 400 years on
Camille Thompson
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