Australia/Israel Review

For over 50 years, the Australia/Israel Review has been a trusted source of in-depth journalism and commentary, so naturally the decision to make this the last printed edition and change the format to a digital quarterly, supplemented by concise yet insightful weekly updates, has not been an easy one.

However, this issue doesn’t represent some sort of swan song or fond farewell to our subscribers. Far from it. Rather, consider it a personal invitation to come aboard the Review’s exciting transformation in the weeks and months ahead. 

What’s in store is a bold leap forward that will maximise AIJAC’s resources to bring even more timely knowledge to a vastly wider audience through a multimedia experience befitting the information age in which we live. Further, it will complement our social media presence, which already places AIJAC among the top-followed Jewish organisations, not only in Australia, but in the world. 

With so much happening here and in Israel, in ever-quicker news cycles, the need for AIJAC’s insightful content and timely fact-checking is greater than ever.

Case in point, the news fiasco on May 20 when a UN official incredibly made on BBC Radio a bizarre and transparently false claim regarding “14,000 babies that will die [in Gaza] in the next 48 hours unless we can reach them.” This anti-Israel libel was reported throughout the next morning on ABC NewsRadio and into the evening on the SBS website in sensational headlines and reports. Not long after the interview, the UN discreetly walked back that remark, since it was complete nonsense. AIJAC’s social media team swung into action to set the record straight in real time.

Australia of course just decisively re-elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his ALP team, and they have a clear mandate to govern. Meanwhile, the Greens’ increasingly extremist bent, including their rabid anti-Israel obsession, which helped make university campuses and even city centres unsafe spaces for Jews, almost certainly contributed to their near total wipeout in the lower house. 

Unfortunately, in matters of foreign policy, especially regarding the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the Albanese Government has slowly been developing a problematic tendency of moving in lockstep with European nations like the UK and France, as well as Canada. And these nations have been far too prone to having their wrong-headed Mideast policies effectively decided by the false, inflammatory or exaggerated claims coming out of UN organs or affiliated NGOs – such as the “14,000 babies” lie. By contrast, Washington has pushed back on the UN’s entrenched pro-Palestinian biases under both Biden and Trump.

An example of such a foreign policy error occurred on May 20, with Foreign Minister Penny Wong signing on to yet another European-led joint statement on Gaza criticising Israel on the issue of humanitarian aid for Gazans.

Once again, as we have seen so often from European and UN sources, the statement distorted the humanitarian situation in Gaza. The international community is refusing to acknowledge, much less attempt to deal with, the overwhelming evidence that aid being supplied through UNRWA and other agencies was stolen by Hamas and exploited on a massive scale to control the population, enrich itself and pay new jihadist recruits. 

By joining the Europeans in rejecting Israel’s sensible plans to change the way aid is distributed, Australia was effectively urging Israel to continue the mistakes of the past that played straight into Hamas’ hands. This would prolong the war and the unavoidable suffering that comes with it.

The timing was especially bad because the war with Hamas appears to be at a decisive crossroads. While the lives of up to 23 living hostages and the remains of 35 others are in the balance, Israel is poised to fully implement Operation Gideon’s Chariots, intended to capture and hold Gazan territory while moving Gaza’s civilians out of the way of the fighting. This will leave Hamas exposed in the captured areas. 

This would finally end the war in a few months’ time. Of course, a quicker way to do so would be for Hamas to finally accept Israel’s offer to end the war without further bloodshed based on terms completely in line with the stated positions of Australia and virtually all of Western powers – that there must be no future role for Hamas in the rule of Gaza. 

If Hamas releases the remaining hostages and disarms, its leaders and members would be granted safe passage to a regional country willing to accept them. At this point, a technocratic government to rule Gaza could be assembled, with the assistance of regional forces, allowing the process of reconstruction of war-torn Gaza to begin.

If this does not happen, reconstruction of Gaza will never find funding so long as Hamas maintains military control over Gazans. Therefore, it is profoundly in Australia’s interest to get behind these principles. 

Of course, the UN is apoplectic over Israel’s plans to directly oversee aid flows so Hamas does not divert and exploit them, but that is simply entrenched bias and self-interest. Australia is right to insist Gazans must get enough aid to survive, but it absolutely should not sign on to the UN’s claim that only its agencies can deliver that aid. The history of the past 20 months has shown UN agencies are incapable of – and apparently uninterested in – preventing Hamas from being the primary beneficiary of aid flows. With US help, Israel has provided a credible plan to both feed Gazans and liberate them from Hamas’ control. Why would we oppose this?

Meanwhile, here in Australia, the Albanese Government must build upon its efforts to combat antisemitism and improve communication with the Jewish community on issues that affect it.

There are no quick fixes and no shortcuts. The one clear verdict of the election was voter rejection of fringe parties and the narrow-mindedness and bigotry they enable and often represent. What’s needed now is leadership that will govern from the centre and act in the best interests of Australia’s social cohesion, democracy, economic welfare and national security. Though this will be the last printed Australia/Israel Review, we will very much be part of upcoming public debates about how best to do that over the Albanese Government’s next three years.