No Labor action to back angry words over Israel

If the PM is dissatisfied with the explanation from Israel about the World Central Kitchen strike, it should send a senior member of the ADF to Israel to seek reassurance.

Late senator Jim Molan while a Major General in the Australian Defence Force.

The killing of Zomi Frankcom and her colleagues from World Central Kitchen in an Israeli military strike in Gaza on Monday is a terrible tragedy.

It was also a grave mistake that should never have happened, as Israel itself has recognised.

Humanitarian workers operating in war zones are protected under the laws of armed conflict.

The World Central Kitchen staff had followed all the correct protocols. They were travelling in marked vehicles, in a “deconflicted zone”, and had advised the Israel Defence Forces of their movements.

Israel has apologised for the incident, commenced an investigation into the failures that led to it and made clear that it was unintentional.

Zomi Frankcom. Picture Facebook

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has expressed his outrage at the killing and demanded full accountability from Israel in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

This is as it should be. Australians are entitled to know how this happened, and receive a full explanation that details the failures.

The Albanese Labor government has since said it is not satisfied with the explanations provided from the initial investigation, including in a briefing to Australia’s ambassador to Israel.

If that is indeed the case, then it begs the question of what Australia will do about it.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has also demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

How this reconciles with Labor’s other demands that Hamas release the hostages and that Hamas can play no role in Gaza’s future is unclear, given that Hamas has rejected both these conditions.

To state the obvious, it requires the agreement of both parties to a conflict to conclude a ceasefire. And Hamas to date has been steadfast in its refusal to accept the terms on offer.

The quickest and most certain way to resolve this conflict is for Hamas to release the hostages, the holding of which constitutes an ongoing war crime, and to lay down its weapons.

The Albanese Labor government is quick to give press conferences and let its views and demands be known on this conflict.

But it is failing to translate these views into influence, because it is doing no diplomacy whatsoever to back them up.

If the Labor government is dissatisfied with the explanation from Israel about the World Central Kitchen strike, and seeks reassurance about Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law more broadly, then it should send a senior member of the Australian Defence Force to Israel to have detailed conversations.

There are plenty of senior serving ADF officers who could fulfil this role. Chief of Army Lieutenant General Simon Stuart knows the region well and has relationships with senior levels of the Israel Defence Forces, having commanded the multinational force in the Sinai for several years.

There is also precedent for this. Following the last major Israel-Hamas conflict in 2014, Israel invited a number of former military commanders, including the late senator Jim Molan, to review Israel’s adherence to the laws of armed conflict in that war.

If the Labor government is genuine about wanting a ceasefire, then it needs to be focusing as much of its efforts on the actors with influence over Hamas, including the states of Qatar, Iran and Egypt, as it is doing with Israel.

Chief of Army Lieutenant General Simon Stuart. Picture: Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide via NCA NewsWire

But to date, Wong has made only one trip to the region, four months after the October 7 terrorist attacks, which was notable mainly for its truncated schedule.

No senior officials of note have sought to prosecute the diplomacy that could add to international efforts to bring about a ceasefire.

In the Labor government’s public commentary on the issue, you would think Israel is the only party with moral agency in this conflict, because this is the only actor it ever seems to address.

But it was Israel that was attacked on October 7, and Hamas that broke the previous ceasefire with its murderous rampage and abduction of civilians. The only way this war and its civilian suffering ends in an enduring fashion, and with better future prospects for both Palestinians and Israelis, is with Hamas’s removal from power.

That is what our diplomacy should be seeking to address, rather than persisting with the fiction that there is only one party to the conflict.

Such is the level of diplomatic inaction that it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the Labor government is seeking mainly to play to a domestic audience on this issue.

Statements are often all we get from this government. But just as the Houthis in Yemen will not be deterred by a press release from Canberra, so too just issuing statements proclaiming the importance of a ceasefire or the sanctity of international humanitarian law will achieve nothing unless backed up with concrete steps.

The Albanese Labor government is practising dilettante diplomacy. It is big on words but lacking in any meaningful action. It is little wonder so few governments around the world heed what we have to say.

Dave Sharma was ambassador to Israel from 2013-17, is the former Liberal member for Wentworth and is a NSW senator.