Australia / Israel Review

The first anniversary, on October 7, of Hamas’ inhuman campaign of murder, rape and torture, which left nearly 1,200 Israelis dead, and saw the kidnapping of a further 250, dominated local media. Coverage was mostly sympathetic to Israel. 

Commemorating the anniversary, AIJAC’s Justin Amler, appearing in the Daily Telegraph and the Hobart Mercury (Oct. 5), wrote “The Jewish people were barely allowed one moment of respite, to mourn and grieve, before they were under attack once again.”

On Oct. 7, News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt accused the Federal Government of repeatedly saying Israel has a right to defend itself, yet failing to “support any specific action Israel has taken.” 

In the Age and Sydney Morning Herald (Oct. 6), Zionist Federation of Australia President Jeremy Leibler listed the slew of calumnies directed at Australian Jews, including, “Apparently, we are colonisers. We are not indigenous to Israel. We have no historical connection to the land. We are white supremacists. We are bad Jews because we are Zionists. We are weaponising antisemitism. We are abusing our power and influence. The charge sheet of being a Jew in Australia goes on and on.”

In the Australian (Oct. 5), AIJAC’s Mark Leibler said the accusation of genocide levelled against Israel amounts to a modern-day antisemitic blood libel.

Newspaper editorials on Oct. 7 highlighted the moral blindness of protesters, especially those wanting to demonstrate on the day itself.

The West Australian noted, “October 7 was as much an assault on liberal democracies as the September 11 attacks on the United States, but the response has been remarkably different.”

The Advertiser criticised a pro-Palestinian activist who compared “Hezbollah’s slain leader Hassan Nasrallah to… South African freedom fighter Nelson Mandela.” Mandela, “fought to bring peace and unity to South Africa. Nasrallah… used human shields and rained missiles on Israel in pursuit… of [its] eradication,” it said.

The Herald Sun accused anti-Israel protesters of “attempt[ing] to trash… the significance of October 7… which the Israeli and Jewish communities… remember as an anniversary of barbarism and evil.” 

The Australian Financial Review said, “Anti-war protesters have seemingly backed the goals of Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists.”

The Sydney Morning Herald suggested, “Australians seem to be rapidly losing interest in, if not patience with, the protests.”

On Oct. 8, the Canberra Times editorialised that anti-Israel street protests have been “overshadowed by the ‘useful idiots’, fellow travellers, and terrorist sympathisers who marched under thinly disguised versions of the banners of Hamas and Hezbollah.”

A UK Observer editorial in the Guardian Australia (Oct. 7), argued that “The Arab world is ready to recognise Israel’s right to exist” but Israel must agree to an independent Palestinian state, predicting “such a breakthrough would defang Hamas… better than any military campaign ever could.” 

The views of former and current Jewish Federal MPs were given prominence on Oct. 7. In the Guardian Australia, Federal Labor Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus expressed shock “at the reluctance of some on the left to call out Hamas’ behaviour.” Liberal MP Julian Leeser in the Australian Financial Review warned that “our leaders have turned a blind eye to the rising antisemitism.” In the News Corp papers, former Liberal Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said Israel has been “abandoned in its hour of need.”

In the Courier Mail (Oct. 6) and Australian Financial Review (Oct. 7), Israel’s Ambassador to Australia Amir Maimon wrote, “We didn’t ask for this war, we don’t want this war, but we will win it.”

Unsurprisingly, less sympathetic perspectives were heard too. 

On ABC NewsRadio, Joel Carmel, a spokesperson for fringe Israeli NGO “Breaking the Silence”, said the war “was justified” at first but “very quickly became a war of revenge.”

On Channel 10 on Oct. 7, spokesperson for the anti-Israel Jewish Council of Australia, Sarah Schwartz, absurdly claimed that, “Under international law, an occupying force doesn’t have a right to defend itself against a population which is already under its control.” Of course, if Hamas hadn’t attacked Israel, there would be no Israeli presence and therefore, no Israeli control over Gaza.

On ABC Radio National “Breakfast” (Oct. 8), the Palestinian Authority’s Australian representative Izzat Abdulhadi said protesters “are mourning the victims of Gaza. I think it has been exaggerated by… a lot of politicians about the 7th of October, because 7th of October is not an isolated event.”