ISRAEL AT WAR

UN Security Council Resolution 1701

After the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, UN Security Council Resolution 1701 called for a permanent ceasefire and the removal of Hezbollah from southern Lebanon. The Resolution achieved neither of its aims. Instead, Hezbollah rebuilt its military capability. Israel now has two major goals: Firstly, to guarantee that Hezbollah won’t be able to carry out its own version of October 7, and Secondly to damage Hezbollah’s military capability to such an extent that it won’t be able to threaten Israel.

As Amir Maimon, Israel’s ambassador to Australia remarked “Israel is doing what any sovereign nation would do: defend the safety and security of all its citizens, Jews and Arabs alike”. Maimon called on the UN Security Council to enforce Resolution 1701.

Iran

On 1 October The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that “Netanyahu has had one of the best weeks in the history of modern politics”. Despite Joe Biden’s usual advice “Don’t escalate. Don’t provoke Hezbollah” Netanyahu attacked. Israel’s strike on 27th September against the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah was a defensive act against an enemy backed by Iran and bent on the destruction of the Jewish state. Israel acted contrary to the advice of its allies, particularly the US, and in doing so eliminated a terrorist whose killers were responsible for multiple deaths.

On 1 October Iran unleashed 181 ballistic missiles against Israel. Iran’s conduct provides an opening for Israel to inflict considerable damage to its missile program including its nuclear sites. Surely, Biden must follow through, bearing in mind that Iran is closer than ever to a nuclear weapon. As WSJ puts it, the question for American and Israeli leaders is: “If not now, when?”

Gaza

Israel launched its war against Hamas in Gaza after Hamas attacked and brutally murdered 1,200 innocent civilians and took 250 hostages on 7 October 2023. Gaza officials have since reported more than 40,000 deaths (including women and children) but deliberately gives no indication of how many were military casualties.

Having substantially destroyed Hamas as an effective fighting force, Israel has redirected its focus to Hezbollah which began attacking northern Israel on 8 October 2023 and has fired more than 8,000 rockets, drones and missiles into Israel. Hezbollah has rejected international efforts to negotiate a ceasefire. The Netanyahu government aims to drive Hezbollah from Israel’s northern border to enable its 60,000 citizens to return home.

Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu has not responded to a U.S. push for a 21-day ceasefire ordering his army to continue fighting “with full force”. US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin has insisted that Israel had “a right to defend itself”, saying the US would continue to provide military aid to Israel.

Israel Ups the Ante Against Hezbollah

Thousands of hand-held pagers and walkie-talkies were remotely detonated by Israel on 17 and 18 September targeting Hezbollah’s most senior commanders, killing about 700 Hezbollah fighters and injuring another 3,000. The pager and walkie-talkies attacks crippled the group’s ability to communicate and coordinate a response to Israel’s bombardment. Israel followed up, launching massive air strikes against Hezbollah and targeting the Hezbollah chief, Hassan Nasrallah who has led Hezbollah for 32 years. He was killed in a huge bomb blast on 27 September.

Nasrallah’s assassination has been described as a “military coup of gargantuan proportion” and a “Middle Eastern earthquake”. Prof Kobi Michael at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv said that “Once Hezbollah is paralysed the whole Iranian axis of resistance is paralysed”.

On 27 September, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the United Nation’s General Assembly (UNGA) just one hour before the Israeli Air Force targeted and killed Nasrallah, with Netanyahu saying, “There is no place in Iran that the long arm of Israel cannot reach, and that is true of the entire Middle East”. Netanyahu was triumphant adding that Israel had “settled the score” with a “mass murderer”, adding that Nasrallah was not just another terrorist but “was the terrorist, the central engine of Iran’s axis of evil”. Israel has chopped the head off Hezbollah, killing not just Nasrallah but almost all of Hezbollah’s military leaders and many of its fighters. Eliminating Nasrallah was an essential condition for achieving Israel’s aim of returning its citizens safely to their homes in and changing the balance of power in the region.

Israel plans to strike other buildings in the heart of Beirut under which Hezbollah stores weapons and arms. These are buildings in which Lebanon’s civilians reside. However, before bombing the area, Israel messages the occupants informing them that they must evacuate immediately for their safety and security.

Where Does Australia Stand?

Attending UNGA, Australia’s foreign affairs Minister, Penny Wong added her voice to a call for a 21-day ceasefire across the Israel-Lebanon border. Nationals leader in the Senate, Bridget McKenzie accused Wong of “playing domestic politics”, saying that Israel had a right to defend itself and its assassination of Nasrallah was a step which had to be taken. McKenzie added that the return of Israel’s remaining hostages and the surrender of Hamas would have to be a precursor to any ceasefire. The Albanese government claims that Israel had a right to defend itself, while at the same time condemning every Israeli act of self-defence. Opposition leader, Peter Dutton has described the Albanese government’s “abandonment of Israel” as the “worst foreign affairs call in a generation”.

As Greg Sheridan wrote in The Australian, “Wong gave the worst speech of her life at the United Nations”. It was so divorced from reality and so morally obnoxious in its treatment of Israel and so selective in its politically convenient moral posturings, as to be utterly unworthy. There is a global crisis of anti-Semitism of which the Albanese government appears to have no grasp. There is a long established Islamic and Arab tradition of anti-Semitism. The Houthi movement of Yemen, another Iran proxy, has a slogan: “God is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, a Curse upon the Jews, Victory to Islam!” 

Sheridan points out that Israel is one of the smallest countries in the world, smaller than the equivalent of one third of Tasmania. Hezbollah and Hamas are both funded by the Iran regime, and they are united by “A profound anti-Semitism, an explicit determination to exterminate Israel, and by a religious commitment to an Islamist political order”.

A Two-State Solution

Netanyahu has rebuffed US calls for a two-State solution while suggesting a different two-State solution: The creation of “A Jewish state” between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and another, “The state of Jordan”, where the Palestinians could exercise self-determination.

Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly in September, US President Biden said that “Even as the situation has escalated, a diplomatic solution is still possible. In fact, it remains the only path to lasting security”. However, the New York Times wrote, “The proper role for the United States in this crisis is not to seek a diplomatic solution. It is to help Israel win”.

Netanyahu has said that Israel would make peace with its neighbours first, leading to a period of normalisation. Eventually, peace with the Palestinians would be possible and Israel could return to supporting a Two-State solution. Sheridan writes that Israel had offered Palestinians their own state on four previous occasions on the most generous terms imaginable adding, “Don’t take my word for it. Read the memoirs of Bill Clinton and his senior officials”. On each occasion the Palestinian leadership rejected peace. Clearly, Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah are dedicated to destroying Israel and do not want peace. Any Two-State solution must include binding, credible security guarantees that the Palestinian state will not and cannot be the launching ground for future attacks on Israel.

In Conclusion

The front-page headline in The Australian newspaper on 3 October read: “Albanese says Israel and Iran must de-escalate tensions while refusing to back a push to dismantle Hezbollah”

Did Albanese actually refuse to back Israel’s push to dismantle Hezbollah’s terror infrastructure, while urging Israel to prioritise diplomacy over military action against Iran and its terrorist proxies? While Albanese and his foreign minister Penny Wong say the Jewish state had a “right to defend itself”, Albanese would not endorse retaliatory action by Israel. In the meantime, Joe Biden declared he was “fully, fully, fully supportive of Israel”.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton has pledged to “turn the tide of anti-Semitism” in Australia portraying himself as a leader with “moral clarity and courage”.

Does Prime Minister Albanese and his Foreign Minister Wong genuinely believe that if Israel was to heed their calls for a ceasefire that there is the remotest prospect that Hamas, Iran, and Hezbollah would honour a ceasefire and lay down their arms.

On which side of the fence does the Australian government actually sit?

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