The world’s fight
An opportunity was lost for our government to unequivocally stand with Israel and against terrorism by voting No at the UN General Assembly
By now it is clear to all that this is not just another war Israel finds itself fighting.
This war, brought about by Hamas’s murderous evil rampage on October 7, is a watershed moment for Israel and the Middle East region.
It is not about restoring calm for a finite period while maintaining a policy of tolerating a genocidal enemy on Israel’s border. It is about removing that threat once and for all.
Israel’s fight against this evil Islamist terrorism is the world’s fight. And Israel needs the civilised world, more than ever, to stand shoulder to shoulder with it.
Australia’s abstention on the latest skewed United Nations resolution last Friday was a satisfactory outcome. And yet, an opportunity was lost for our government to unequivocally stand with Israel and against terrorism by voting No.
We are of course grateful for the condemnations by many members of our government, led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong, of the heinous acts committed by Hamas terrorists and their calls for the kidnapped Israelis in Gaza to be freed.
But we also can’t help but notice as the war goes on, rhetoric from our government starting to slip into the same old tired paradigms of “proportionality” and “respecting international law”, despite Israel observing these things perhaps more stringently than any other country, while Hamas hides its weapons in schools and hospitals and blocks civilians in Gaza from evacuating, making them human shields in its sick and twisted death game.
At the same time, it has been disappointing to see senior members of the government air damaging dissenting views in the media that undermine its stated position.
We also put on record our disappointment that while the leaders of the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy have travelled to Israel in solidarity, no representative of our government has done the same.
We are immensely grateful to have strong supporters of Israel and the Jewish community within the government.
But it’s one thing to wax lyrical about how the deep connection between our countries dates back to Doc Evatt; it’s quite another to put politics aside, do the right thing, and stand unshakeably by Australia’s ally while it engages in the fight of its life.
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