NIF Australia Podcast

As a former prime minister and foreign minister, there are few people with a better understanding of Australia's role in the world and our history with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than Kevin Rudd.

Our event with Kevin Rudd, streamed live on 9 September, covered everything from Israel's plans for West Bank annexation, the recent UAE deal, Australia's support for the two-state solution, the rise of China and more.

You can watch video of this event on YouTube.

Haaretz Diplomatic Correspondent Noa Landau joined NIF Australia for a discussion on the historic normalisation accord reached between Israel and the UAE.

This event was recorded on Thursday 27 August 2020. You can also watch it on our YouTube page.

Leading British commentator and Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland joined award-winning Australian journalist Debbie Whitmont for a wide ranging conversation covering Europe, Israel and the US.

As one of the first and loudest voices to raise the question of antisemitism within the UK Labour party, and as a trenchant critic of Jeremy Corbyn, Freedland is uniquely placed to offer insights into whether the Jewish community is warming to the new Labour leadership and its policies.

Freedland, with extensive journalistic experience in the US, Britain and the Middle East, will also speak about the country's changing role in Europe after Brexit and what this might mean for the government's policies towards Israel and the Palestinians.

This is an audio version of a webinar event hosted on Thursday 2 July 2020.

With Prime Minister Netanyahu actively advancing plans to annex parts of the West Bank and President Trump pushing his own plan for the Middle East, this event featured former US ambassador to Israel and former US special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations – not to mention NIF Australia's co-patron! – Martin Indyk, for his insights on annexation, US-Israel relations and the future of the two-state solution.

In this special conversation we heard the ultimate insider's view on the role US presidents have played in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, and look forward towards November's presidential election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

This event was recorded as part of a New Israel Fund Australia webinar on Tuesday 23 June 2020. You can watch it with video on YouTube.

One of Israel's best known authors, AB Yehoshua, joined Dr Mark Baker for an NIF Australia webinar to discuss the Netanyahu-Gantz government's plans for annexation of the West Bank and efforts to reach a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This is a recording of our event on Thursday 18 June. You can watch the webinar on YouTube.

A recording of our event with executive director of Physicians for Human Rights in Israel (PHRI), Ran Goldstein, in which we discuss the impact of Covid-19 in Israel and how this pandemic is impacting the refugees, people seeking asylum and undocumented workers, as well as Palestinian inhabitants of the West Bank and Gaza.

You can watch this event on YouTube.

Remember to join the NIF Australia for more great events.

Photo credit: Wissam Hashlamoun/Flash 90

NIF Australia advisory council member Mark Baker joins US professor, author and political commentator Peter Beinart to discuss Donald Trump, the ongoing COVID crisis, the state of democracy in the US, the candidacies of Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden, and annexation and democracy in Israel.

Join more NIF Australia events at www.nif.org.au/events

Labor Knesset Merav Michaeli joined an NIF Australia webinar in the middle of one of the more interesting moments in recent Israeli political history as the leading opposition member seemed poised to join a right-wing government.

In addition, Labor leader Amir Peretz, despite promising for more than a year to not join a coalition led by Benjamin Netanyahu, was posed to do exactly that. Michaeli was resisting the move, including at a vote of the party's executive on Sunday 26 April.

We discussed that issue with her, as well as Netanyahu's plans to annex parts of the West Bank, the recent elections, threats to democracy and more.

(Michaeli was in the middle of an important Knesset committee meeting discussing arrangements for the new coalition agreement, so we've jumped past the first few minutes of the event and straight to when she was able to join us.)

You can watch this event in full on YouTube.

Political analyst, pollster and commentator Dr Dahlia Scheindlin joined NIF Australia executive director Liam Getreu to discuss the results of Monday's Israeli election.

This is an audio recording of a Facebook live stream.

This episode is a recording of an event which took place in Sydney on Tuesday 26 November 2019.

A former academic, Zandberg was a leader of 2011's social justice protests in Israel and a member of Tel Aviv's city council before entering the Knesset for the Meretz party in 2013. She was the party's leader from 2018-19, including the April 2019 election. She was reelected in September's election on the Democratic Union ticket.

This event took place at an unprecedented time in Israeli political history with two elections occurring back-to-back in 2019, one in April and another in September.

Prime Minister Netanyahu had already been indicted for corruption and bribery and both he and opposition leader Benny Gantz had failed to form a coalition, and it looked inevitable that a third election was on its way.

Tamar provided an insider's perspective to one of the most turbulent years in Israeli history, as well as offered her analysis on some of the most pressing issues facing Israelis, including the ongoing occupation of the Palestinian territories, issues of religion and state and how to create a joint Jewish-Arab coalition for democracy.

She's joined in this conversation by journalist Debbie Whitmont.