AIJAC/Rambam Program/2015

AIJAC/Rambam Program/2015
Membership	•  Vic Alhadeff •  Christopher Pyne •  Bronwyn Bishop •  Tim Wilson (Australia) •  Sharri Markson •  Ben English •  Bevan Shields •  Alex Hart •  David Lipson •  Aaron Patrick •  Anthony Bergin •  Wyatt Roy •  Sharon Bird •  Terri Butler •  Russel Matheson •  Peter Hendy •  Rob Mitchell •  Chris Ketter •  Jim Molan •  Mal Brough •  Andrew Leigh •  Dean Smith •  Bridget McKenzie •  Joanne Ryan •  Sean Edwards
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 throughout the year, including the AIJAC Rambam Israel Fellowship, and Australia-Israel-UK Leadership Dialogue.ref>http://middleeastrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2015/11/bergin-of-beersheba.html</ref>

Anthony Bergin of ASPI wrote this thinly veiled sales pitch for Israeli military gear after his trip:

“Our exchange on strategic issues soon demonstrated a whole range of areas where our military forces [ IDF and the Australian military ] could learn from one another. These ranged from defence industry co-operation (our army has purchased an Israeli battle management system) to counter-insurgency, urban intelligence gathering, coalition warfighting, countering improvised explosive devices, military education, the use of reservists, airpower developments (both countries are acquiring F-35 joint strike fighters), military procurement processes and maritime security (Israel is developing offshore gas fields). Issues related to counter-terrorism and social resilience were highlighted as common interests of both states.”
Anthony Bergin (2015) 
After junket trip to Israel

Politics

• Sharon Bird (Lab. Cunningham, NSW)
• Mal Brough (Lib. Fisher)
• Terri Butler (Lab. Griffith, Qld)
• Bronwyn Bishop, former parliamentary speaker
• Sean Edwards (Lib. senator, SA)
• Peter Hendy (Lib. Eden-Monaro, NSW)
• Chris Ketter (Senator, Qld)
• Andrew Leigh (Lab. shadow asst. treasurer)
• Russel Matheson (Lib. Macarthur, NSW)
• Bridget McKenzie (Nat. senator, VIC)
• Rob Mitchell (McEwan, VIC)
• Christopher Pyne, Industry Minister
• Joanne Ryan (Lab. Lalor)
• Dean Smith (Lib. senator, WA)

Corporate media

• Vic Alhadeff — SBS non-executive board director
• Ben English, deputy editor, Daily Telegraph
• Alex Hart, Channel 7 reporter
• David Lipson, Sky News, political reporter
• Sharri Markson, senior writer, The Australian
• Aaron Patrick, print editor, Australian Financial Review
• Bevan Shields, Fairfax Media federal politics editor

Other

• Anthony Bergin of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) - November
• Retired Major General Jim Molan
• Tim Wilson, Human Rights Commissioner
• Delegation of 50 "entrepreneurs" led by Wyatt Roy, Asst. Minister for Innovation - November

 

Known members

2 of the 25 of the members already have pages here:

Member	Description
Sharri Markson	Host on Sky News Australia
Jim Molan	Australian soldier/politician accused of multiple war crimes during the attack on Fallujah in late 2004.

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