AIJAC/Rambam Programs/2008

AIJAC/Rambam Programs/2008
Membership	•  Tony Abbott •  Cory Bernardi •  Mark Bishop •  Jacinta Collins •  Jason Clare •  Peter Dutton •  David Johnston •  Michael Keenan •  Shayne Neuman •  Andrew Robb •  Jason Wood •  Michael Forshaw •  Brett Mason •  Glen Sterle •  Janet Albrechtsen •  Peter Charley •  Paul Sheehan •  Jacinta Tynan •  Margaret Easterbrook •  Alan Kirk •  John Roskam •  Rebecca Weisser •  Jewel Topfield •  Lynette Riley
A junket "fact-finding trip" to Israel for a large number of selected Australian journalists, politicians, political advisers, government officials, trade union officials, student leaders, and academics.

The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) arranges a large number of junkets "fact-finding trips" to Israel for selected journalists, politicians, political advisers, government officials, trade union officials, student leaders, and academics through its Rambam Israel Fellowship Program There are a number of associated programs doing very similar things, not all of them arranged by AIJAC, for example the Australia Israel Leadership Forum, the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies Journalists Mission, Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce and etc. For practical reasons, these programs are listed here under the heading Rambam Programs.

Participants

The participants are sent from several programs.

Paul Sheehan, columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald wrote glowingly how:

The highlight of the trip 'was the quality and lucidity of so many of the experts. You simply can't replicate this intensity of experience second hand'." So intense were they that, "Sheehan later wrote in one of his... columns that Israel has a 'plethora of warrior-scholars', people who were once in elite military units and are now members of elite academic institutions.

Politicians

Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council Rambam Fellowship Program

• Tony Abbott, Shadow Minister for Health
• Cory Bernardi, LIB, SA
• Mark Bishop, ALP, WA
• Jacinta Collins, ALP, Vic
• Jason Clare, ALP, NSW
• Peter Dutton, LIB, Qld
• David Johnston, LIB, WA
• Michael Keenan, LIB, WA
• Shayne Neuman, ALP, Qld
• Andrew Robb, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, MP for Goldstein ("While I have been a student of the Middle East since I was 17 years of Age, my 6-day visit to Israel has greatly honed my perspective... I found it a profound spiritual experience... It confirmed to me that the Israeli strengths and achievements derive from the Jewish brain and spirit as there aren't many resources... While I was in the Golan Heights it was brought home that the only stable thing within the Middle East is instability..." andrewrobb.com.au, 5/8/08)
• Jason Wood, LIB, Vic

Australia -Israel Cultural Exchange

• Michael Forshaw, ALP, NSW
• Brett Mason, LIB, Qld

?

• Senator Glen Sterle, LIB, WA ("The Chair of the Australia/Israel Parliamentary Friendship Group Senator Glen Sterle has echoed the sentiments of his Labor colleagues and called for Australia to seriously consider its participation in the Durban Review Conference..." (WA Senator calls for Durban rethink, AJN, 10/4/09)

Media

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies Journalists Mission & the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs

• Janet Albrechtsen, columnist, The Australian ("... an entire generation of Palestinian children is being raised on a full diet of hate education, on jihad and anti-Semitism... Look at the website of Palestinian Media Watch..." Hostages to fear & systematic loathing in Israel, The Australian, 26/11/08)
• Peter Charley, producer, Insight, SBS
• Paul Sheehan, columnist, SMH
• Jacinta Tynan, journalist, Sky News

Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council Rambam Fellowship Program

• Margaret Easterbrook, The Age
• Alan Kirk, foreign editor, The West Australian
• John Roskam, ED, Institute of Public Affairs Australia
• Rebecca Weisser, opinion editor, The Australian

Jewish National Fund Mission to Israel

• 5 Australian water experts + Fairfax journalist Jewel Topfield

NAB Yachad Scholarship Fund

• Lynette Riley, Aboriginal academic ("Riley, who will be speaking on the Aboriginal-Israel connection, is a graduate of the YSF and went to Israel to learn about educational advances with disadvantaged students. Her studies led her to develop approaches for addressing issues sensitive to indigenous people in their home communities." Aboriginal academic to launch UIA campaign [19/2/09], AJN, 13/2/09)

 

Known members

2 of the 24 of the members already have pages here:

Member	Description
Tony Abbott	"The delicate balance between freedom and security may have to shift"...
Peter Dutton	Australian politician close to the security apparatus

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