Australia/Israel Review

Follow the leaders

Discussing the end of the ceasefire on Sky News (March 19), Israeli academic and commentator Dr Gerald Steinberg said Hamas had been “overconfident”, banking on Israel being restrained, and believing “negotiations were going to continue according to Hamas’ rules.” 

But, he explained, “Israel is very determined, they’ve said it very clearly, to destroy Hamas’ capability to wage war and to execute these types of attacks again in the future.”

In the latest round of fighting, Israel took out “some very specific names of Hamas leaders that escaped for the first, I guess it was 16 months of fighting after October 7th and thought that they were safe and therefore they surfaced,” he said.

Prof. Steinberg argued that at least half of those killed in Gaza since October 7 were Hamas fighters, which is “a very, very low number, relative to many other wars, of civilians that were killed.”

Speaking to ABC Radio National “Breakfast” (March 21), former IDF spokesperson Doron Spielman explained, “Our attacks and our strikes are happening simply against the Hamas leadership, many of whom are trying to hide in civilian areas, regrettably…  of course, they don’t value the life of their civilian population, which is why they hide there. Israel has probably done more than any army in the history of the world to try to get civilians of its enemy out of the way… but there are limitations, and Hamas is trying to prevent civilians from leaving the area.”

 

Fertile ground

SBS TV “World News” (March 14) covered a new report by the UN’s Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, which accused Israel of perpetrating systematic sexual and gender abuse against Palestinians in Gaza since October 7, 2023. 

The bulletin focused on an allegation that Israel deliberately targeted Gaza’s main IVF clinic in December 2023, destroying 4,000 frozen embryos, as well as 1,000 unfertilised eggs and sperm samples. 

Co-Commissioner Chris Sidoti was quoted calling the destruction “genocidal”.

In December 2023, Islamic Jihad and Hamas used mortars and anti-armour missiles near this clinic, leading to an Israeli strike causing damage to it. Gaza actually has nine IVF clinics, and the UN report only mentions one being affected. If all had been deliberately destroyed, that could indicate genocidal intent, but no such pattern is reported.

Responding to the allegations, former IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus told ABC Radio National “Breakfast” (March 18), “There hadn’t been any sexual violence, and that allegation is false. It is based on nothing but thin air and hatred of Israel and again we have to keep in mind who is the author of this report. Navi Pillay is a person who supports BDS, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions on Israel. She is a person that has co-hosted public events with terror sympathisers, and she is a person who has continually advocated for the boycott of what she calls ‘Apartheid Israel’.”

Conricus also explained that images showing Palestinian men and boys dressed only in their underwear were not evidence of sexual abuse. “We need to do [this] in order to minimise the risk for Israeli soldiers that Hamas won’t be carrying bombs underneath their clothes and try to approach Israeli soldiers and then blow themselves up, which has happened many times in the past. Unfortunately, it’s happened against Australian troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

 

Rough cut

In the Spectator Australia (March 22), New Zealand Jewish Council spokesperson Juliet Moses exposed the truth behind the documentary film “No Other Land”, which won the Academy Award for best documentary.

The film tells the story of the efforts to prevent the demolition of buildings in the illegally-built Palestinian hamlet of Masafer Yatta in the West Bank, which is in Area C. According to the Oslo Accords, Israel has full legal administrative and security control over Area C.

But what Moses particularly wanted to focus on was the fact that while the West was agog because the film was made by Palestinians and Israelis, Palestinian activists and organisations were livid.

“The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel released a statement declaring the film violates its ‘anti-normalisation guidelines’,” she noted.

Israeli co-director Yuval Abraham was denounced for suggesting October 7 was wrong and for not using the word “genocide” to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza, amongst other transgressions, she explained.

  

Territorial behaviour

On ABC Radio Triple J “Hack” (March 5), when asked to discuss US President Donald Trump’s plan to turn Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East”, UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese spouted her usual ill-informed and extremist anti-Israel views.

Albanese said, “We cannot continue to discuss the question of Palestine without the Palestinians. The Palestinians have been controlled, dominated since the beginning of colonialism in their land. This plan has led to the creation of the State of Israel… Israel is repressing the right of self-determination of the Palestinians, which is recognised, including as a right to [an] independent state in what remains of Palestine; Gaza, east Jerusalem and the West Bank. So, it’s the Palestinians who need to decide. This is the starting point. This is self-determination.”

No one has prevented Palestinians from exercising their right to self-determination, other than their own leaders who, since the late 1930s, have rejected numerous offers to establish an independent Palestinian state. 

 

Soft Serve

A human-interest story on SBS TV “World News” (March 16) reported on the impact Israel’s renewed blockade of aid and electricity was having on the operation of Gaza’s landmark Kazem ice cream parlour.

Owner Iyad Abu Shaaban said, “From the lack of resources, no place, no generators, no electricity, no water, the most basic and trivial things were not available.”

SBS reporter Hadil al-Swaiedi said that the “return of an ice cream shop offers a taste of one possible future. But Gazans say real recovery can’t begin until a permanent ceasefire is agreed and essential supplies start flowing again.”

The story did not query how an ice cream shop could exist in an area where Israel is accused of perpetuating starvation and a genocide. 

 

Under pressure

Discussing the resumption of hostilities in Gaza, Tahani Mustafa of the International Crisis Group told ABC TV “The World” (March 18) there isn’t much Arab states can do.

Tahani said, “Qatar has been quite a useful mediator, but in terms of being able to exert any substantial financial pressure, military pressure, you know, the Arab states simply don’t have that capacity. They are significantly dependent on US aid, on Western aid, and it’s precisely those states that are offering Israel the diplomatic and financial cover and, obviously, the security logistics to pursue its campaign in both Gaza and the West Bank.” 

Tahani also exposed pro-Hamas sympathies, saying, “There are no other alternatives for Gazans to pursue other than resistance. And, unfortunately, Hamas is the last vestige of organised armed resistance that they have. And it’s really the only thing that is giving some level of pushback against Israel’s onslaught in Gaza.” Of course, “resistance” is only “needed” because of the war Hamas started

But, as AIJAC’s Bren Carlill explained in the Canberra Times (March 15), “How do we remove Hamas from Gaza? By leaning on Qatar and Egypt.”

He pointed out that “Qatar is Hamas’s primary Arab backer. It hosts most of Hamas’s external leadership and has helped bankroll its operations. It is in the strongest position to facilitate Hamas’s departure.”

The US also “has significant leverage over Qatar and should communicate that its continued support for Hamas comes with serious strategic consequences,” Carlill wrote.

Egypt shares a land border with Gaza, and “holds the keys as to who and what can enter or leave,” he added.

 

No return

Writing on the resumption of hostilities in Gaza, Nine Newspapers columnist Waleed Aly (March 21) said if Israel and the US “insist that any peace deal ultimately requires Hamas to forfeit control of Gaza,” this “naturally raises the question” of the role of the Palestinian Authority (PA), “which controls much of the West Bank.”

Aly wrote that the PA “says it is prepared to support a two-state solution, and is at this point the only Palestinian alternative… yet, the Netanyahu government outright refuses to countenance that it could replace Hamas in Gaza.”

He said Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu “shows no interest in a two-state solution, and regards a Palestinian state simply as a threat to Israel by its existence,” implying this is why he opposes a role for the PA in Gaza.

In March 2024, Netanyahu explained his opposition to the PA running Gaza, saying, it “educates its children in terrorism and finances terrorism… if we allow this to happen, we will return to the October 7 massacre.”

 

Slip ups

On ABC TV “News” (March 19), Medicins San Frontières’ Claire Nicolet inadvertently let slip that, contrary to widespread accusations, Israeli strikes in Gaza are not indiscriminate.

Nicolet said, “I think it was a real surprise for all of us when it first started at 2am last night. Very heavy bombing, airstrikes all over the street, which is already quite unusual because even in the past months of war, it was very unusual that the whole street is really attacked fully. And obviously, yes, a lot of casualties.”

Similarly, on ABC TV “News” the previous day, Medical Aid for Palestinians’ Liz Allcock, was asked how the current intensity of IDF attacks compared to past operations. She said. “They were extremely intense throughout the conflict. I mean, it varies by geography, but there’s usually sporadic, very intense but sporadic attacks.”

 

Truth in advertising

On ABC TV “News” (Feb. 26), ABC US Editor John Lyons waxed lyrical about a full-page ad run in Nine Newspapers containing the names of hundreds of Australian Jews who said they objected to US President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza if it involved forced transfers.

Lyons said, “It’s very powerful, and they are saying Australia must reject Trump’s call for the removal of Palestinians from Gaza. Jewish Australians Say No to Ethnic Cleansing. Now, clearly within the Jewish community, there’s now more and more discussion… they are taking quite a different attitude to some of the more traditional Jewish groups.”

In fact, they are not. All the mainstream Australian Jewish communal organisations have publicly opposed the forcible transfer of Palestinians out of Gaza. As this column noted in last month’s edition, on Feb. 6, AIJAC’s Colin Rubenstein said in the Australian, “The prospect of forcibly transferring them should be both legally and morally unthinkable.” On the same day, Nine Newspapers quoted Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Daniel Aghion, cautioning that “the question of [relocating] Gazans is ultimately a decision for those affected, most of all, Gaza’s civilian population.”

 

Consensus Nonsensus

On ABC TV “News” (Feb. 19), former negotiator Oliver McTernan said his contacts in Israel had told him that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu restarted hostilities because it’s in his “own interests to continue this war, at least until the end of March, because he has to get through the budget if his Government is going to survive.”

McTernan is ignoring the fact that Netanyahu did not make the decision by himself. All of Israel’s top military and intelligence leaders recommended restarting the war in Gaza, particularly because Hamas proposed a laughable ceasefire-for-hostages deal that would have released only one living hostage, and then appeared to be stalling.

Moreover, as AIJAC’s Justin Amler explained on the Sky News website (March 22), “Rather than using the ceasefire of the last few weeks to start rebuilding Gaza’s infrastructure and services, Hamas had spent that time making preparations for further invasions into Israel. This includes the training of new recruits for combat against the IDF, boosting its ranks to a reported 25,000. Plus, there are also an estimated further 5,000 Islamic Jihad terrorists. The ceasefire the world naively clamoured for has predictably been exploited by Hamas to fortify its positions across Gaza, including rigging roads, tunnels and buildings with explosives.”

 

Academic overloading

On March 20, Nine Newspapers ran a disingenuous op-ed by A. Dirk Moses, Lana Tatour and Geoffrey Braham Levey attacking the adoption of a new definition of antisemitism by all of Australia’s 39 universities. 

The trio suggested that the definition was being pushed by supporters of Israel who wanted to stop students on campus protesting “the mass slaughter of civilians and utter destruction of Gaza by the Israeli military.”

They also claimed that “Zionism is not elemental to Jewish identity” and opposing it is not antisemitic.

Zionism is the belief that the Jewish people, like all others, have the right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland where they have lived for thousands of years.

In fact, over 95% of Australian Jews identify as Zionists, with more than 90% considering Zionism an integral part of their Jewish identity, according to a recent poll.

The adopted definition does not prevent criticism of Israel’s policies or actions similar to that levelled at any other nation. But how can it not be considered antisemitic to affirm the right of self-determination for other groups but reject it for Jews?

 

Undergraduate thinking

In the Weekend Australian (Feb. 22), US Middle East expert Prof. Daniel Pipes accused pro-Hamas supporters of “engag[ing] in puzzling acts of aggression” in the West that seem to copy Hamas’ tactics of “winning sympathy… through losing.”

Hamas, Pipes wrote, knows that Israel’s military will hit back hard and “Gazan misery translates into fervent support from anti-Semites of all persuasions – Islamists, Arab nationalists, Palestinian nationalists, far-leftists, and far-rightists.”

But he pointed out that surveys show that the agitators’ disruptive behaviour fails to win sympathy from the mainstream.

 

Unfathomable loss

In the Sunday Telegraph (Feb. 23), National Council of Jewish Women Australia President Lynda Ben-Moshe wrote movingly of Shiri Bibas, 32, and her two young sons Ariel, 4, and Kfir, nine months, who returned in coffins after 16 months of captivity in Gaza.

“It’s hard to describe the[ir] iconic status… in Israel and the Jewish world,” Ben-Moshe wrote of the trio – their red hair making them instantly recognisable. The family had “symbolised to us every Jewish family through history torn apart by the forces of barbarism and hatred of our people.”

In the Weekend Australian the previous day, commentator Gemma Tognini wrote, “They were [kidnapped] because they were Jewish. Stolen from their home and murdered for no other reason than they were Jewish children.” Tognini said Hamas killed them, but the West “loaded the gun”, providing “the cover needed for the crime” by “spending more time cheering Palestinian statehood than it did demanding the freedom of a young mother and her babies.”

 

Publish and be damned

In Nine Newspapers (March 8), anti-Zionist writer Antony Loewenstein’s review of the book “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This” by Omar El Akkad regarding the Gaza war was an unhinged rant.

With no evidence, he claimed that “Palestinians have been so demonised that killing them is viewed as a necessary, even noble, act.”

Continuing, he wrote, “I’ve lost count with the number of articles and opinion pieces in the mainstream Israeli and Western press that have claimed since October 7, 2023, that Palestinians are all guilty just by being born and living in Gaza. This genocidal thinking is often perpetrated by Jewish writers, yet another stain on our beleaguered religion and morality.”

We’re not aware of any mainstream articles that say anything like this. And if it were true, Israel would not have provided countless warnings to Palestinians ahead of military operations to vacate to safer areas nor would it have facilitated millions of tonnes of aid into Gaza since October 7.

Two weeks later in Nine Newspapers, high profile anti-Zionist publisher Louise Adler reviewed a book by Palestinian activist Mohammed El-Kurd – whom she controversially invited to attend the Adelaide Writers Festival in 2023 – portraying him as a bold truth teller. In fact, El-Kurd is a hateful extremist who has accused Zionists of eating the organs of Palestinians and of “lusting for Palestinian blood.”

 

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In Parliament

The following comments and questions were given during various Senate Estimates hearings.

Senator Dave Sharma (Lib., NSW) – Feb. 27 – “At the UN… last year… did you have any meetings with Israel?”

Foreign Minister Senator Penny Wong (ALP, SA) responding: “My counterpart didn’t attend.”

Shadow Home Affairs Minister Senator James Paterson (Lib., Vic.) – Feb. 27 – “Minister… If Israel had… entered into a ceasefire when you first called on them to do so, Hassan Nasrallah and Yahya Sinwar would be alive today. The deaths of those terrorists is something your government has welcomed.”

Senator Wong responding: “Israel has a right to defend itself and it must do so in accordance with international law.”

Senator Paterson: “You have said that we should explore unilaterally recognising a Palestinian state prior to the conclusion of a peace negotiation between Israel and Palestine.” 

Senator Wong responding: “Long-term peace… will require a pathway to Palestinian self-determination and recognition is an integral part… A Palestinian state needs a reformed Palestinian Authority… There is no role for Hamas in the future governance of Gaza… We want to engage in ways to build momentum, including the role of [the] Security Council, in setting a pathway for two states, including with a timeline for the international declaration of Palestinian statehood.”

Greens Deputy Leader Senator Mehreen Faruqi (NSW) – Feb. 27 – “Are you at all concerned that, by universities adopting this definition [of antisemitism]… academic freedom, critique of Israel and antiracist research will be stifled?”

Shadow Education Minister Senator Sarah Henderson (Lib., Vic.) – Feb. 27 – “For many, many months, particularly Jewish students and staff were cowering in the corners of universities, not even wanting to be there and feeling completely unsafe, and nothing happened.”

Greens Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Senator Jordon Steele-John (WA) – Feb. 27 – “What action is Australia taking to place diplomatic pressure on… Israel to comply with these [ICC] arrest warrants [against Binyamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant]?”

Senator Lidia Thorpe (Ind., Vic.) – Feb. 27 – “[By opposing BDS], you’re supporting … the businesses that are directly linked to the Israeli government, who are killing innocent children and other people, so does that make your department and your minister complicit in genocide?”

Senator Henderson – Feb. 25 – “I particularly want to raise concerns about the ABC’s repeated use of the Jewish Council of Australia as a spokesperson representing the broader Jewish community… They… are a fringe group… and they’re… very, very opposed to… Israel…”

Senator Faruqi – Feb. 25 – “In my opinion, the ABC’s Israel-Palestine coverage is heavily weighted towards covering up Israel’s culpability in genocide… [Are] ABC journalists… allowed to use [the term] ‘genocide’ in relation to Israel’s massacre of Palestinians in Gaza, or are you still insisting on calling it a conflict?”

Shadow Attorney-General Senator Michaelia Cash (Lib., WA) – Feb. 25 – “The coalition has a very clear position… Mr Netanyahu is welcome in Australia, and he would not be arrested. Will [he] be arrested… in Australia under the [current] government, as requested by the International Criminal Court?”

Senator Paterson – Feb. 25 – “Operation Avalite was a very welcome response to the Adass Israel Synagogue bombing, but it should not have required the… firebombing of a synagogue to stand up a special taskforce. It was already clear that antisemitism was out of control.”

Senator Wong – Feb. 24 – “The rise of antisemitism in this country – which has been so shocking to those of us who have always argued for respect, inclusion, the observance of the rule of law, for people of all faiths and cultural backgrounds to be respected and for all of us to feel and be safe – has been abhorrent… It is antithetical to who we are as Australians.”