Free world cannot afford Israel to lose existential war

Every state has the duty to protect its people from enemy assaults from beyond its ­borders, as Israeli ambassador to Australia Amir Maimon wrote this week. But alarmed by the prospect of an all-out war between Israel and Lebanon-based terrorist force Hezbollah, Western nations, including the US, Australia, Canada, Japan and the EU, are calling for a 21-day halt to fighting. Their joint statement described the intensifying conflict as “intolerable”, with potential to trigger a broader regional escalation. The potential for loss of life is horrifying. But just as intolerable is the fact that a year of unprovoked rocket attacks by Hezbollah across the Israel-Lebanon border that began on October 8 has turned the north of Israel into a no-go zone, forcing 70,000 people from their homes. If it were to have any durability or credibility, a negotiated solution would depend on the remote prospect of Hezbollah and Hamas, armed by Iran, abandoning their fanatical quest to wipe the Jewish state off the map. That is why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ignored the truce proposal and ordered the military “to continue the fighting with full force”. A ground offensive into Lebanon is becoming more likely.

Against that background, Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s emphasis in an address to the UN Security Council in New York about the need for the creation of a Palestinian state is badly timed. Her comment – “we cannot wait for the parties to do this themselves; we cannot allow any party to obstruct the prospect of peace” – raises the question of who would lead the Palestinians in such a process. Long term, a two-state solution is vital. But major groundwork is needed before it is achievable. Senator Wong, unfortunately, has driven a deep foreign policy realignment against Israel. Her rhetoric at the UN, including the argument “war has rules … even when confronting terrorists”, was not supportive of Israel, Australia’s staunch ally.

In Australia, regrettably, the year since October 7 has drawn out previously latent anti-Semitism, threatening social harmony and multicultural values. At a time when leaders have chosen to ignore or deflect the eruption in anti-Semitism, Steven Lowy, the son of Holocaust survivor and leading businessman Frank Lowy, 93, fears Australia is sleepwalking into a spiral of extremist politics. In a powerful interview in Inquirer with Paul Kelly, the normally restrained Mr Lowy pointed out that when protests morphed into support for barbaric terrorist groups, those who believed in Australian values needed to speak out, loudly and often. Pretending that the eruption in anti-Semitism will not damage Australian society is not an option.

Mr Lowy deplores the devastating scale of the loss of life in Gaza but, as he points out, the conflict was caused by Hamas’s unprovoked October 7 assault. Like many Jews, he also believes in a two-state solution. But, as he says, it is possible only if the Palestinian leadership recognises Israel’s right to exist.

Rather than indulging in fantasy about a sustainable ceasefire, nations committed to peace should push two points raised by Mr Maimon. First, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the nerve centre of Islamist terror operations, should be classified for what it is – a terrorist organisation – and starved of resources through the most effective international sanctions possible. And second, the UN Security Council should enforce Resolution 1701, approved in 2006, which mandates the withdrawal of Hezbollah forces in Lebanon to the Litani River, about 30km north of the border with Israel. That resolution was designed to end Hezbollah’s stranglehold on southern Lebanon and prevent attacks on Israel. If the UN had any backbone and teeth it would have been implemented, and should be, at the earliest opportunity.

Israel has good strategic reasons to continue its campaign. In a week it has inflicted more damage on Hezbollah than the terrorists have suffered for two decades. The ingenious attack of Hezbollah-issued pagers and walkie-talkies incapacitated 1500 top fighters. The targeted assassination in Beirut of a cabal of Hezbollah commanders and the bombardment of the group’s arsenals have depleted its strength. The extent to which Iran steps into the fray will be a key issue. The stakes are enormous, evident in Israel’s successful interception of a ballistic missile that reached close to Tel Aviv on Wednesday, signalling Hezbollah’s capacity to strike deep into Israel’s residential and commercial heart. And in a ground invasion, Hezbollah’s labyrinth of well-equipped tunnels crisscrossing for hundreds of kilometres deep under Lebanon will be a major problem for Israel Defence Forces foot soldiers on the frontline of Israel’s existential war. For the sake of the Middle East and the democratic world, it must not be lost.