Andrew L. Urban
Like individuals, nation states are judged by the company they keep. Friends of the hate-driven Iranian regime such as Russia and North Korea, for example, are held in contempt. Friends of terrorist groups likewise. Now Australia’s leadership has jettisoned the good will it has always enjoyed by its move to side with friends of Hamas.
In a rare interview with The Australian’s Alexi Demetriadi over Christmas, Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, “questioned how the Prime Minister himself could support both a pause in the war and the ultimate removal of Hamas from Gaza. His comments follow Australia’s ceasefire vote at the UN.
In a viral video circulating last week, Hamas senior leader Ghazi Hamad appeared to applaud Australia’s vote. Is that the company Australia wants to keep?
“I find it hard to understand how a democratic nation like Australia has doubts about Israel’s right to defend itself and use all possible means to ensure Israelis aren’t living under a similar threat (against Hamas) in the future,” Maimon said.
Ambassador Amir Maimon
“The Prime Minister understands that Hamas cannot be part of future governance in Gaza … yet supports a ceasefire. These are contradictory messages.”
When criticisms of Israel’s military approach were put to him – according to the Hamas-run health ministry more than 20,000 people have been killed – Maimon stressed that “Israel was in full adherence to international humanitarian and conflict law” and doing its utmost to limit the death toll in Gaza. That challenges the unsubstantiated claims that Israel is committing war crimes. Claims that ignore actual war crimes committed by Hamas.
“While I do understand some of the concerns … Israel are the victims, we were attacked,” he said. “The war could be over tomorrow if Hamas surrendered, gave up its arms and released its hostages.
“The pressure should not be on Israel (but Hamas).” Well, yeah! They are the perpetrators. Not only brutally attacking civilians in Israel but callously and deliberately putting their fellow Gazans in harm’s way, as widely reported.
The Israeli ambassador’s comments came in the midst of another weekend of protests, with Melbourne’s Carols by Candlelight disrupted onstage by pro-Palestine activists on Christmas Eve. Maimon said neither his embassy nor the Netanyahu government could ignore a pattern of anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli sentiment and language across the nation. Israel has issued travel warnings for Australia.
“In The Name Of The Most Merciful Allah”
Hamas logo – with map of Israel (at top) all in Hamas green
For pro-Palestinian read pro-holocaust; the eradication of Israel is in the Hamas charter: “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it…” Their backers, Iran, have frequently vowed the same. Always in the name of that merciful Allah …
Nazi sympathisers in the parliament, on the streets, on campus, in the media and some institutions can be instantly recognised by the Palestinian colours they hoist and wave to disguise the swastika in their back pocket. And by the violence simmering beneath … not always beneath. It’s better we see them (even at Carols by Candlelight) than drive them underground. We should not ban these protests, nor the public displays of the swastika. Let us see them. Ban the wearing of face coverings – the refuge of the unlawful.
Many in this universal lynch mob driven by selective morality are just plain dumb or uninformed. (Consuming biased media, perhaps…) Others are despicably anti-semitic, but they all share one characteristic that sets them apart from the rest of the Judeo-Christian community: hatred. It’s ugly and infectious to the morally weak – look at history. Individuals and communities large or small consumed by it eventually wither or die. Not gloriously. Not heroically. Like antisemitism, the zombie hatred.
Benjamin Netanyahu wrote this in the same issue of The Australian: In destroying Hamas, Israel will continue to act in full compliance with international law. This is especially challenging because an integral part of Hamas’s strategy is to use Palestinian civilians as human shields. Hamas places its terrorist infrastructure inside and underneath homes, hospitals, mosques, schools and other civilian sites, deliberately putting the Palestinian population at risk.
Israel does its best to minimise civilian casualties by dropping leaflets, sending text messages and using other means to warn Gazans to get out of harm’s way. Hamas by contrast does its utmost to keep Palestinians in harm’s way — often at gunpoint.
Unjustly blaming Israel for these casualties will only encourage Hamas and other terror organisations around the world to use human shields. To render this cruel and cynical strategy ineffective, the international community must place the blame for these casualties squarely on Hamas. It must recognise that Israel is fighting the bigger battle of the civilised war against barbarism.