Middle East conflict will be settled only when words replace weapons

The comment by Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon that neither he nor his country has done enough to provide Australians with a better understanding of the impact of war in Gaza on daily life in Israel is a surprisingly frank and belated admission.

In an interview with the Herald’s national security and defence correspondent Matthew Knott, the ambassador said antisemitism was the driving force behind global criticism of Israel. He insisted that mounting pressure from the Albanese government and the international community in isolation would fail to accelerate the creation of a Palestinian state, and he believed many Australians failed to grasp the seriousness of the security threats his nation faced.

Maimon paralleled the daily existential threat to Israel with the alarmed reaction by some sections of the Australian media to a 2022 security agreement between China and the Solomon Islands. “You feel blessed, you live in your beautiful country isolated from the rest of the world,” he said. “My response was: ‘I wish that all our adversaries were so far away.’ ”

Amir Maimon in Canberra.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The interview comes after a turbulent 15 months that has put the once close Australia-Israel relationship under pressure after the killing of an Australian aid worker and a change from our longstanding pro-Israel position in United Nations votes that culminated in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashing out at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on social media.

Hamas’ horrific raid on Israel on October 7, 2023, has so far led to the loss of more than 50,000 Palestinian, Lebanese and Israeli lives and shaken up some of the established order. Israel’s successful degradation of Hezbollah spurred Syrian rebels to begin their offensive last November, the same day as a ceasefire came into effect in the Lebanon conflict.

Maimon said Australians who felt anger at the Gaza death toll alone were wrong to blame Israel, as this was like an attack on the people who were “butchered” by Hamas.

He struggled to understand why it was so difficult for the international community as a whole to support Israel’s “just” cause in pursuing war against Hamas, adding there was no prospect of a two-state solution until Hamas was removed from Gaza.

He is certainly correct that many Australians find it difficult to understand the daily threat facing Israel. He has also vowed to do a better job of communicating Israel’s perspective to the Australian public.

But this is a two-way street. We wonder whether the Albanese government – in fact, if any Australian government – has done enough to explain the history, context and nuances in a conflict that has bedevilled the Middle East for more than a century and flared intermittently since Israel’s establishment in 1948.

Despite our hazy idea of daily life in a nation that finds itself at war, the Hamas raid triggered across-the-board sympathy among Australians. But since then, the Netanyahu government has done itself massive damage with its intransigence, belligerence and failure to explain itself or listen to the international community. As we have said before, this conflict can be settled only when words replace weapons.

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