Backing Gaza ceasefire a mistake

Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon, responding to the Albanese government’s vote in the UN General Assembly for a Gaza ceasefire, rightly wondered “how Australia can support Israel’s right to defend itself while voting in support of a ceasefire that will embolden Hamas”. That summed up the inherent illogicality of a move that has put Australia at odds with our strategic partners and AUKUS allies, the US and Britain. The decisions will undermine further our longstanding close relationship with Israel, the Middle East’s only democracy, and is unlikely to achieve anything other than giving a boost to Hamas. More than two months into the war, there is nothing Hamas and its Iranian paymasters want more than another ceasefire that would enable the terrorist forces to regroup, rearm and prepare themselves for another offensive against Israel.

While non-binding, the UN resolution – backed by 153 countries including Australia, opposed by 10 and with 23 countries abstaining – provides for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”. It expressed “grave concern over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian civilian population”.

Astonishingly, given the monstrous atrocity committed by Hamas on October 7 when it slaughtered 1200 Israelis in the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and kidnapped 240, the resolution failed to condemn Hamas, which it failed to mention. In a similar vote in late October, Australia and other countries abstained because Hamas’s responsibility for the October 7 pogrom was not mentioned. Yet after Wednesday’s vote, Foreign Minister Penny Wong insisted: “The resolution we have supported is consistent with the position we have previously outlined on these issues.” At the same time, she said Australia would have preferred that the resolution referred to the Hamas attacks. Australia consistently had affirmed Israel’s right to defend itself, she said, but in doing so “we have said Israel must respect international humanitarian law; civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, must be protected”. The problem, of course, is that Hamas misuses hospitals and schools as terrorist bases.

On Wednesday, Anthony Albanese compounded Australia’s position in a joint statement with prime ministers Justin Trudeau of Canada and Christopher Luxon of New Zealand supporting “urgent international efforts towards a sustainable ceasefire”. They also demanded that Hamas lay down its arms and release all hostages.

That is a forlorn hope. Hamas’s raison d’etre is to wipe Israel and Jews off the map. For that reason, opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham, in Israel, slammed the Prime Minister’s weak stance. “A premature and one-sided ceasefire will only leave Hamas in place, able to rearm, reorganise and repeat the deliberate murders, rapes, beheadings and kidnapping of innocent people,” Senator Birmingham said. “When the going gets tough in the fight against terrorism is when a government most needs to hold its nerve.”

Jewish-Australian Labor MP Josh Burns, who is also in Israel with the all-party delegation, broke ranks with the government, warning a premature ceasefire would allow the terror group to rearm. If the government won’t listen to Mr Burns it should heed the warning of Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein. While allowing Hamas to rebuild its forces, a ceasefire would make advancing the negotiated two-state Israeli-Palestinian peace that Australia has long supported completely impossible, Dr Rubenstein said.