In the Media

The Advertiser – 3 October 2024

On September 18, 2024, the United Nations had an opportunity to demonstrate that it retains some semblance of the moral clarity that was present when the world body was created in the aftermath of the destruction and death of World War 2. In the shadow of those horrors, the hope was for the UN to maintain peace and security and protect human rights.

The Palestinian Authority had proposed a wildly extreme resolution that promises the Palestinians statehood on all the land they demand within a year, and imposes isolation on Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, declaring it an “apartheid state”, delegitimising it, and stripping it of its inalienable right to defend itself. It was pure lawfare – warfare by another means.

Predictably, the UN failed the test. The resolution passed with 124 countries supporting it, 43 abstaining and just 14 opposing it.

This should come as no surprise – any organisation dominated by non-democracies, as the United Nations is, cannot be expected to make decisions based on liberal, democratic principles.

However, what has been even more disappointing is the attitude of numerous Western democratic countries which refused to reject this resolution characterised by legal warfare and institutionalised hatred against the world’s only Jewish state – a country that shares the same democratic and liberal values and principles that they supposedly also espouse and is today fighting for its life against grossly illiberal enemies.

France, for instance, once proposed to widen the international coalition against Islamic State to include fighting the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Yet this was mere empty rhetoric, because it voted for this resolution, which failed to even mention Hamas, made absolutely no demands of the Palestinians, ignored all threats to the Jewish State, and overturned the UN’s long-standing peace formula of “land-for-peace” in favour of demanding Israeli give up “land for no peace”.

In doing so, France placed itself in the illustrious company of Iran, Syria, Russia, China and many others in the undemocratic world. It was joined in this shameful decision by our neighbours in New Zealand.

Then there is Australia – known historically for its fairness and pragmatic approach towards Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We have long had a deep connection with Israel, ever since the famous 4^th Light Horse Brigade in 1917 stormed through the Turkish defenders to seize the strategic town of Beersheba, breaking the Ottoman line, and facilitating Israel’s ultimate creation.

Unfortunately, that courage was of a different age. The current Australian Government refused to vote against this revolting resolution, instead abstaining. Foreign Minister Senator Penny Wong even said she was “disappointed” she could not support it.  This amounts to a de facto rejection of Australia’s long-standing bipartisan stance of supporting a negotiated Israeli-Palestinian two-state peace, because this resolution not only does not mention negotiations, it also effectively rejects peace. It says the Palestinians should be given everything they demand – including all of the Jewish holy sites of Jerusalem and reparations from Israel – but doesn’t say they ever have to agree to live in peace with the Jewish state.

Senator Wong reinforced this flawed approach by using her speech at the United Nations General Assembly to call for a “clear timeline” for recognition of Palestinian statehood.

This yet again reflects the growing disdain for Israel by this Government since assuming office. Over the past two years, it reversed the previous government’s stance of supporting Israel at the UN. It started officially labelling the disputed West Bank, including east Jerusalem, as “occupied Palestinian territories” and referring to the Jewish communities living there as “illegal”. It also doubled the funds it gives to UNRWA, despite that UN body being implicated in Hamas terrorism.

More recently it continues pressuring Israel for a ceasefire, and calling out “settler violence” while ignoring all the violent rhetoric of the Palestinian Authority including its “pay to slay” program that financially rewards Palestinians who commit terror attacks.

This short-sighted approach has not helped bring peace to the region. On October 1, Israel was attacked directly by Iran, the chief coordinator of terror in the region and supporter of this resolution, which fired over 180 ballistic missiles aimed at Israel’s population centres.

So perhaps Australia should heed its own values and stand with Israel – as Argentina, Czechia, Fiji, Hungary, Malawi, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Tonga, Tuvalu and the United States did at the UN.

These nations understood that the recent UN resolution was an immoral recipe for continued war and conflict. The Palestinians have rejected several two-state peace offers and have in recent years refused to even negotiate with Israel.  After the atrocities of October 7 last year, rewarding the Palestinians with a resolution promising them everything they want without demanding they agree to peace or even mentioning these attacks, is not only diplomatically flawed but morally incomprehensible.