Civilisational battle as good tackles evil on anniversary

Voters considering supporting the Australian Greens should not forget the party’s prominent role in demonstrations backing the terrorist objectives of Iranian puppets Hamas and Hezbollah. As Jewish groups and their supporters gathered around the world on Monday to commemorate the tragic brutality of the October 7 massacre last year, Hezbollah issued a message praising the Australian demonstrators for spreading its ideology of anti-Semitic hatred. “From Australia to the world: Stop the ‘Israeli’ aggression on Lebanon,” the terror group said. Monday’s statement from the Greens also would have been music to the terrorist army’s ears. In it, the Greens condemned “the war crimes and genocide that is being carried out by the state of Israel right now in Gaza and the rest of the occupied territories, and the bombing and invasion of Lebanon”. The “extremist” Netanyahu government’s campaign of genocide in Gaza had claimed more than 40,000 lives, the Greens said. Ignoring the provocation of 9000 Hezbollah missiles fired at Israel in nine months, the party claimed Israel had now “unleashed a relentless campaign of bombardment with no regard for civilians”.

Belatedly on Monday, the Albanese government acknowledged the reality of Israel’s predicament, as it should have done months ago. At an October 7 memorial service in Sydney on Monday night, Health Minister Mark Butler, speaking on behalf of the government, delivered Labor’s strongest defence of Israel in 12 months. Jewish Australians, he said, were living in fear from unprecedented anti-Semitism in this country. After months of government vacillating, Mr Butler said Israel had a right to respond to attacks on its people, including last week’s Iranian missile strike. “No self-respecting nation would fail to defend itself if attacked the way Israel has been,” he said. Mr Butler, whose Jewish forebears migrated to Australia 150 years ago, said anti-Semitism was “growing and spreading here in a way we’ve never seen before”, creating a climate of “deep pain and fear”. Only Jewish parents, he said, “have to watch their children walk into schools surrounded by security fences and guards”. Only Jewish aged-care facilities – subjected to threats and vandalism since October 7 – have had to hire security guards, with Holocaust survivors spending their final months under guard. We look forward to Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong reinforcing the speech.

From Re’im forest in Israel’s south, where Hamas terrorists slaughtered 364 people at the Nova music festival, to services in Australian synagogues, memories and grief flowed as the horrors of 12 months ago were recalled and the 62 hostages believed to be still alive were prayed for. The battlelines between good and evil are deeper now. As Jewish leaders acknowledge, Israel is at the pointy end of a “civilisational battle”.

Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler says no other country faces terrorist attacks on its civilians and is expected to submit passively to its own annihilation. The federation acknowledges the suffering of innocent Palestinians, whose plight is not a result of Israel’s actions but of Hamas’s brutal strategy.

For all the weakness of the Albanese government’s responses to date, Iranian authorities summoned Australia’s ambassador in Tehran, Ian McConville, for a dressing down over Australia’s alleged bias against Iran. To its credit, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade insisted “Australia makes no apology for the views it has expressed about Iran’s actions or the actions of its ambassador to Australia”, Ahmad Sadeghi, who praised assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as a “blessed martyr’’.

As the world looks to the future beyond Monday’s anniversary, the only realistic path to broader Middle East peace, as The Wall Street Journal argued on Monday, is an Israeli victory over Iran and its terror network. To that end, French President Emmanuel Macron’s call for an arms embargo against the Jewish state could not be more naive or less likely to do anything to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people. It is typical of irresolute Western leaders who vow support for Israel but mindlessly seek to handcuff the Jewish state by trying to prevent access to military supplies to achieve the decisive victory it needs.

Regardless of the logistical difficulties because Iran’s nuclear facilities are deep underground, Tony Abbott is logical in arguing that Israel should aim to destroy Tehran’s nuclear arsenal. “Does anyone seriously think that these (nuclear facilities) aren’t the precursors to nuclear weapons?” Mr Abbott said. “Israel has every right to deny the means of a new Holocaust to a country bent on bringing it about.”

In Australia, the challenge now, as Mr Butler said, is to stop “history’s oldest prejudice – its oldest hatred, anti-Semitism”. It has spread in our society like never before in the past year as disparate groups, including the Greens, come together, spewing hate and urging Israel’s destruction.

From this year on, October 7 will be sacrosanct, a day for asserting the power of goodness over evil.