Why Palestinian Recognition is Both Inevitable and Fraught

The Middle East

Australian public opinion in favour of recognition of a state of Palestine is clear. Continuing opposition could merely hasten a form of recognition that would be tantamount to an empty gesture. What is now required is for those genuinely seeking a two-state solution, that enables Palestinians and Israelis to live side-by-side in peace, is to provide a robust, realist edge to what Foreign Minister Wong calls the “matter of when, not if” decision.

(2025) BROWNIE

Political history

With a complacent title, published by admirers (the imprint Good Times Press is revealing), un-stocked in ‘leading’ bookstores, with word-of-mouth sales, this is the last of the memoirs of Hawke government ministers, published forty years after its election.

(2024) Secular & Catholic Social Democracy: The Race Mathews Biography

Political history

It is a spectacular irony that in the 21st century, so far, the Australian whom in sympathy most popularised Catholic social thought is a committed atheist and Fabian socialist who youthfully flirted with joining the Communist Party. This is only one of the fascinating features of the life of Race Mathews (1935- ), explored in a well-researched biography by his wife and noted author, Iola Mathews.