Australia / Israel Review

Minority report

Writing in the Daily Telegraph/Courier Mail (Nov. 20) shortly after Israeli and Jewish sports fans were attacked in Amsterdam by pro-Palestinian thugs, AIJAC’s Rebecca Davis highlighted rising global antisemitism and the vulnerability of being an Australian woman belonging to a targeted ethno-religious minority.

“Hatred does not happen in a vacuum… it descends to such depths when leaders don’t lead, when governments don’t govern, and when police don’t police. When businesses ignore bigotry. When universities trivialise. When media misreports. When it’s #MeToo – unless you’re a Jew,” she wrote. 

In the Australian Financial Review (Dec. 9), AIJAC’s Justin Amler wrote about the mood in the Australian Jewish community after the devastating arson attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne on Dec. 6. 

Amler said many Jews feel “abandoned” by Australia’s leaders and unhappy with their inadequate responses to “this increasing wave of hatred” that began “14 long months” ago.

He said, “The images of a burning synagogue in the heart of the Jewish community will leave a painful wound on the soul of our community that will not easily heal.”

Three days earlier, the paper lamented the 316% rise in reported cases of antisemitism since Hamas’ October 7 massacre, attributing it to “political and institutional failures to call out antisemitism.” 

The editorial said, “It started with university administrations failing to protect Jewish students and staff from anti-Gaza war protests on campus. It now includes the National Anti-Racism Strategy released by the Australian Human Rights Commission last month, which promotes DEI (Diversity Equity and Inclusion) theories but contains no substantial discussion of how to combat the spike in antisemitism.”

AIJAC’s Joel Burnie told Sky News Australia (Dec. 6) that the Jewish community was not surprised by the arson attack on the synagogue, given the recent rise in antisemitism.

 

Canberra’s Complicity?

News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt (Nov. 25) inveighed against the Albanese Government’s decision to ban former Israeli justice minister Ayelet Shaked from visiting Australia.

Bolt wrote, “It claim[ed] she’d ‘incite discord’. Discord from whom? From the pro-Palestine extremists who forced Myer to cancel the opening of its Christmas windows? The vandals who last week tagged cars and homes in Woollahra with ‘F–k Israel’ slogans? These ferals now dictate which Jews may come? Now add Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Jews who cannot visit Australia, after the International Criminal Court ordered his arrest on sight – here, too – for supposed war crimes.”

Writing in the Age (Nov. 28), AIJAC’s Dr Colin Rubenstein and Jamie Hyams argued that recent Australian government decisions, coupled with inadequate responses to antisemitism, have not only strained relations with Israel but contributed to the surge in antisemitism here.

“The events of October 7 and subsequent occurrences have severely traumatised the vast majority of the Jewish community. Many reactions to those events, including from our government, have compounded that trauma, creating feelings of isolation and even betrayal,” they wrote. 

“The government’s own political calculations no doubt inform its actions. However, the overall effect has been to degrade Australia’s relationship with our most important Middle Eastern ally… and to make Australia’s Jewish community, suffering its worst-ever wave of antisemitism, feel more isolated.”

In the Australian (Dec. 7), NSW Liberal Senator and former Australian Ambassador to Israel Dave Sharma accused the Albanese Government of undermining Australia’s relationship with Israel for domestic purposes. 

Senator Sharma said the Government’s bad faith moves included, “[summoning] the Israeli ambassador… earlier in the year to be warned that Australia would not support Israel in responding to continued rocket attacks from Hezbollah. Labor has failed to criticise the shameful overreach by the International Criminal Court of its own jurisdictional limits. And it has put an effective stop on military exports to Israel, including for equipment that can be used only in self-defence.”

Speaking to Sky News Australia (Nov. 15) after the Albanese Government decided to vote in favour of two anti-Israel UN General Assembly resolutions, AIJAC’s Joel Burnie accused PM Anthony Albanese of reneging on his commitment before the last federal election that “no matter which party is in power here, Israel will have Australia’s friendship and support.” 

 

Court in trouble

In the Australian (Nov. 18), Strategic Analysis Australia senior fellow Anthony Bergin castigated the Government’s decision to support the UN General Assembly resolution “Palestinian Sovereignty over natural resources,” which echoed the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion calling on Israel to withdraw from the West Bank within one year.

“The court’s vice-president, Julia Sebutinde, made clear in her dissenting opinion, the advisory opinion completely airbrushed out the agency of Israel’s neighbours and Palestinian leadership over decades that have been at the heart of the threat to Israel’s security and the absence of a Palestinian state. The ICJ made it appear the prolonged Israeli presence in the Palestinian territories was solely due to Israel’s obstinance.”

 

A resolutionary path

The Australian (Dec. 5), criticised the Albanese Government’s decision to vote “yes” on the UN General Assembly resolution “The Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.”

The editorial said, “A two-state solution is impossible until Iran disbands its Hezbollah and Hamas terror armies.” 

It said the “government [is] desperate to stay in office” and was “looking to protect inner-city marginal electorates from the Greens, whose opportunist enmity for Israel is boundless, as well as suburban seats with large Muslim communities.” 

Earlier, on Nov. 28, the paper slammed UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ decision not to renew the employment contract of UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide Alice Wairimu Nderitu, after she refused to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza as passing the threshold of what constitutes genocide.

The Australian Financial Review’s Andrew Tillett (Dec. 5) wrote, “Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s decision to shift from abstaining to support is a return to the position of the early Howard government: between 1996 and 2000, Australia voted in support of the two-state solution resolution.” However, those votes were during the Oslo peace process. When Palestinian leaders launched the Second Intifada in 2000, after rejecting an unprecedented Israeli offer to create a Palestinian state, the Howard Government decided it would no longer support biased UN resolutions, as have all Australian governments since. Moreover, resolutions have become even more extreme in the past two decades. 

 

A state of delusion

On ABC RN “Breakfast” (Dec. 5), pro-Palestinian lobbyist Nasser Mashni said Australia’s support for UN General Assembly resolutions that demand Israel immediately withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza “puts us in line with more than 95% of Earth’s population. It’s the right thing to do, particularly at day 423 of this ongoing genocide.”

But he then rejected the two-state outcome the resolution calls for, thus putting himself at odds with the supposed “95% of the world’s population” that he said supported it. 

Mashni claimed that “A two-state solution’s gone… It might have worked if the Israelis had the same sort of intent that the Palestinians came to the party with. The reality today, though, is that that land is indivisible. What needs to happen, and I’m very clear, my father was raised in that Palestine where somebody’s religion was second to their nationality. Every one of Abraham’s children, Muslim, Christian, and Jew, should live together equally without any level of superiority.” 

He also called for “every Palestinian hostage, every Israeli hostage [to] be released.” There are no Palestinian hostages, only prisoners held according to the rule of law, and provided with basic rights not given to Israeli hostages in Gaza.

 

Opportunity knocks

In the Australian (Nov. 28), AIJAC’s Ahron Shapiro explained that Israel “will not stand idly by and watch Hezbollah violate the current ceasefire as it did in 2006,” which resulted in “18 years of patient military build-up [by Hezbollah].” 

“In theory, [the ceasefire] creates an opportunity for Lebanon to assert its sovereignty over its entire territory after decades of abandoning its south to powerful terrorist militias,” he wrote.

The paper’s editorial in the same edition said the 60-day ceasefire “between Israel and Hezbollah is an important victory over terror and Tehran’s ayatollahs after their major investment in the Lebanese Islamist group’s barbarism.” The deal represents “a change in the balance of power” in the Middle East, with Iran and proxies on the backfoot, the paper said.

On ABC RN “Drive” (Nov. 27), Lebanese-born analyst Walid Phares welcomed the ceasefire but expressed scepticism about its longevity, given Hezbollah’s ideology.

He suggested that unless UN Security Council Resolution 1559 – which calls for Hezbollah’s disarmament – is enforced, the agreement will go the way so many others have in the past. 

Writing on the ceasefire in the Canberra Times (Nov. 28), Alan Behm and Emma Shortis bizarrely referred to the Israel-Lebanon border region as “northern Palestine”. 

The pair said the ceasefire had nothing to do with protecting the vulnerable but only each side seeking to consolidate its positions. This is nonsense. Israel is well-known for its efforts to protect its own citizens, unlike Hezbollah, which uses its civilian population as human shields.

They also falsely accused Israel of genocide, despite Israel facilitating over one million tonnes of aid entering Gaza, assisting Gazans to be immunised against polio and issuing warnings to civilians to relocate to safer areas ahead of military operations. 

 

Rodger that

In Nine Newspapers (Nov. 27), analyst Rodger Shanahan wrote, “Tying any ceasefire agreement in Lebanon to a ceasefire in Gaza, Hezbollah and Iran bet that it could pressure Israel on a second front without Israel fighting on a second front. They miscalculated. As a result, Hezbollah’s leadership has been decimated and its weapons stockpiles have been greatly reduced.”

However, he was also sceptical the ceasefire would hold.

“The idea that Hezbollah will withdraw to north of the Litani River and take its weapons with it… ignores the fact that much of Hezbollah actually lives south of the Litani River and will simply return to their homes and rebuild,” he wrote.

 

Obsession!

After discussing the Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire deal, on Nov. 27, ABC Global Affairs Editor John Lyons moved on to the situation in Gaza, which, he said, is “now virtually unliveable”.

As usual, Lyons blamed Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu for the intractability of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu has long been opposed to a Palestinian state… As long as Israel insists on occupying Palestinians and denying them what the United Nations voted for in 1947, that they should have their own state alongside a Jewish state, these ceasefires will merely be pauses between wars.”

The insinuation that Israel prevented the creation of a Palestinian state in 1947 and is still blocking its establishment today is Lyons’ constant theme – but it relies on historical sleight-of-hand. 

Palestinian Arab leaders in collaboration with neighbouring Arab states opposed the 1947 UN Partition Plan, which would have seen the creation of a Jewish state and an Arab state. It was not Israel but the Arab states that prevented a Palestinian state being formed after 1948 and even the PLO explicitly rejected establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza until at least the late 1970s. Since then, Palestinian leaders have rejected Israeli offers for a two-state peace in 2000, 2001 and 2008. Since 2014, they have refused to even engage in final status peace talks. But in Lyons’ insinuations, none of this ever happened.

 

Lancet lie lives on

On Nov. 22, for at least the fifth time, John Lyons repeated the false claim that “an interesting article in the Lancet medical magazine in July” said, “it’s not implausible to estimate that up to 186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.”

As last month’s Noted and Quoted reported, there was no article in the Lancet claiming that 186,000 Palestinians had died between October 7 and the end of June 2024, as Lyons implied, but rather a letter suggesting that the war could ultimately be the indirect cause of that many casualties in the future. 

Meanwhile, AIJAC’s appeal to the ABC Ombudsman of its earlier rejection of a complaint about Middle East Correspondent Eric Tlozek and Lyons’ misreporting on this issue was partly successful. The Ombudsman agreed that Tlozek’s online article warranted an editorial note to clarify the Lancet letter’s claims. Yet, bizarrely, Lyons, whose misreporting on the Lancet issue was more egregious than Tlozek’s, was deemed not to have breached ABC editorial standards.

 

Annexation Alarmists

In the Age/SMH (Nov. 21), academic Amin Saikal claimed that a re-elected Donald Trump would give Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu free rein to annex the entire West Bank and Gaza and also be happy to see Israel to continue fighting Hamas and Hezbollah. 

There is little evidence to suggest that Trump would support the sweeping annexation Saikal envisions, particularly if it conflicted with his wider objectives, such as expanding the Abraham Accords that he initiated in 2020. 

Moreover, contrary to Saikal, Trump has made it very clear he wants a ceasefire in place between Israel and Hamas before he assumes office on Jan. 20.

Meanwhile, on Sky News Australia (Dec. 3), anti-Zionist activist Antony Loewenstein said he worried that Trump will “speed up… official annexation of the West Bank [and] an unofficial of sorts splitting up of Gaza to allow settlers to return. There is a strong push within Israel to bring fundamentalist Jewish settlers back to Gaza.” 

Moreover, in a conspiracy theory we have seen nowhere else, Loewenstein said, “There is a desire by many in the Israeli government to settle southern Lebanon.”

Loewenstein went on to falsely accuse AIJAC and other mainstream organisations of “believ[ing] in endless occupation”. Host Laura Jayes appeared sceptical of his claim that AIJAC “blindly supports Netanyahu”.

 

Late Night Lies

On ABC RN “Late Night Live” (Nov. 11), Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, who has a long history of antisemitic tweets and support for Hamas terrorism against Israel, accused Israel of seeking to displace Palestinians in Gaza. 

“Eighty per cent of Gaza is either rubble or severely damaged… All universities have been destroyed. Why?”, she asked, and advocated for Israel’s expulsion from the UN, citing attacks on UN personnel and facilities. “No other state has attacked the UN as Israel has this year,” she concluded. 

 

Forensic foolishness

On ABC RN “Drive” (Nov. 20), Omar Ferwati from Forensic Architecture, explained that his organisation has compiled a comprehensive visual report “documenting and analysing the conduct of the Israeli military since it began its campaign in Gaza last year,” which South Africa included as part of its submission to the International Court of Justice alleging Israel is guilty of genocide. 

According to Ferwati, “What we see is a pattern where Israel’s conduct indicates an organised campaign, as we say, to destroy life, the conditions necessary for life and life-sustaining infrastructure, the ability to continue to live there.”

He said, “It looks to us that hospitals were systematically targeted” and “there was a cumulative and repetitive action to destroy agriculture” and that more than 75% of known schools were targeted. 

Ferwati said Forensic Architects does not claim to determine intent, which is a critical component in proving genocide.

Of course, maybe Forensic Architects is finding patterns of behaviour because Hamas fighters have a pattern of basing themselves in hospitals, in schools and residential areas and returning to those locations time and time again, so Israeli forces then target them there, as permitted under the laws of war.

 

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In Parliament

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (ALP, Grayndler) – Dec. 8 – media release: “The Jewish community has made an extraordinary contribution to the strength and success of our nation… Antisemitism is disgraceful, and I unequivocally condemn it.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton (Lib., Dickson) and Shadow Home Affairs Minister Senator James Paterson (Lib., Vic) – Dec. 9 – media release: “For too long, the rise of vile anti-Semitism in our country has been allowed to fester… We need to say enough is enough.”

The following three comments are from the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights inquiry into Antisemitism at Australian universities, Nov. 29:

Josh Burns (ALP, Macnamara) – “One… misunderstandings about IHRA is around the ability to have a free and democratic conversation about Israel, to criticise Israel freely and how that does not interfere with academic freedom or freedom of speech.” 

Henry Pike (Lib., Qld) – “I’m concerned, Professor Scott, that the antisemitism… on your university campus isn’t coming from outside but is within.”

Senator David Shoebridge (Greens, NSW) – “Have you spoken with Jewish academics who have shown solidarity with the Palestinian struggle to understand their particular struggles and many of the attacks that have come against them?”

Senator Fatima Payman (Ind., WA) – Nov. 28 – Second Reading speech, Treasury Laws Amendment (Divesting from Illegal Israeli Settlements) Bill: “The world has watched in horror at the genocide… Settlement violence is not an aberration of individual extremist settlers, but part of an Israeli policy of unlawful occupation, annexation and apartheid.”

Senator Payman also tabled Second Reading speeches for two other bills aimed at Israel, the Defence Trade Controls Amendment (Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity) Bill and the Genocide Risk Reporting Bill.

Greens Deputy Leader Senator Mehreen Faruqi (NSW) – Nov. 26 – “In attempting to erase the indigenous people of Palestine… People… see the truth of Israel. They see it for the genocidal apartheid state that it is… a settler, colonial project built on violent racial supremacy.”

Senator Andrew Bragg (Lib., NSW) – Nov. 26 – “One of the most disappointing things that has happened during my brief time in public life has been the return of antisemitism.”

Senator Dean Smith (Lib., WA) – Nov. 25 – “Israel [has] a robust legal system, an independent judiciary and a commitment to accountability. For the ICC to cast doubt on such a system raises serious questions about its true intentions and undermines its credibility.”

Shadow Attorney-General Senator Michaelia Cash (Lib., WA) – Nov. 25 – “Does the Prime Minister agree with our ally President Biden’s very strong stance in support of our other democratic ally, Israel [on the ICC warrants]?”

Foreign Minister Senator Penny Wong (ALP, SA) – responding: “Australia respects the independence of the International Criminal Court and its important role in upholding international law.”

Senator Cash – Nov. 21 – “Do you accept that your government’s shifting position on Israel emboldens anti-Israel elements within the Australian community to conduct such anti-Israel vandalism?”

Senator Wong – “There is no place for antisemitism in this country… We use our vote in the UN system to do what we can to work with others to progress the cause of peace.”

Anne Stanley (ALP, Werriwa) – Nov. 20 – “I condemn the [Netanyahu Government’s] barbaric campaign that is set on ensuring the utter annihilation of the Palestinian people.”

Senator Nick McKim (Greens, Tas.) – Nov. 19 – “Australia must impose sanctions on Israeli war criminals, like Mr Netanyahu… the deliberate displacement of Palestinian people… to be forced into concentration camps.”

Senator Raff Ciccone (ALP, Vic.) – Nov. 15 – Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee: “You talk about Australia needing to work collaboratively… with like-minded partners. Do you not consider… Israel to be a like-minded partner, given that they’re the only democracy in the Middle East?”