War will end when Israel’s foes stop attacking it

Hamas began hostilities on October 7 when it invaded southern Israel and began slaughtering and kidnapping Israelis. Only an evil or foolish leader would start a war. But nations are entitled to defend themselves against attack.

Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike targeting an area in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Josh Lees, spokesman for the Palestine Action Group, was interviewed on ABC Radio National Breakfast on Thursday. He told presenter Patricia Karvelas: “We’ve been protesting for 51 consecutive weeks and we’re certainly not going to stop now.” He added: “We need to protest more than ever to stop this war, to stop this madness that’s going on.”

This is a statement driven by delusion. Israel is involved in a retaliatory war against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Also, Israel is under attack from the Houthis in Yemen to the south and the Islamist mullahs in Iran to the northeast. Israel is intent on survival. There is nothing that Lees or any of his leftist and/or Islamist comrades can do in Australia to affect the outcome of hostilities in the Middle East. Perhaps the serious Lees should take advice from left-liberal (in the North American sense of the term) comedian and commentator Bill Maher.

Maher was interviewed by Sunny Hostin, co-host of American ABC’s The View last May. Asked by Hostin if he was concerned about the civilian lives being lost in the Israel-Hamas war, Maher responded: “Of course, everybody is. That’s what happens in a war. Here’s a way to stop that – stop attacking Israel.”

It was good advice. What’s avoided by some protagonists in the current debate is that Islamist Hamas began hostilities on October 7 when it invaded southern Israel and began slaughtering and kidnapping Israelis. The area of the hostilities has been part of Israel since 1948 when the nation was born and recognised by the UN.

On October 8, the Islamist Hezbollah movement began firing rockets and dispatching drones into northern Israel. In a year 9000 missiles were fired, leading to a situation where 60,000 Israeli citizens were driven from their homes. Much of the area was also part of Israel as created in 1948.

More recently, the Islamist Houthi organisation in Yemen has fired missiles into Tel Aviv – as has Iran. Tel Aviv has been part of Israel since 1948. There has been some military tension in the West Bank where the Palestinian Authority is based at Ramallah. However, Israel is not at war with the PA.

On October 7, Israel was taken by surprise with the Hamas attack and subsequent hostage-taking. This was a failure of intelligence in general and the Israel Defence Forces in particular. So much so that the IDF had no plan to invade Gaza. The situation was different on the Israel-Lebanon border. The IDF was well-prepared to respond to Hezbollah’s military operations.

As Yaroslav Trofimov has pointed out in these pages, the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah made two mistakes. He underestimated the military and intelligence might of Israel and its determination to survive. And he over-estimated the ability of Iran to support its surrogates in the region against Israel’s retaliation.

Only an evil or foolish leader would start a war. But nations are entitled to defend themselves against attack. It’s the concept of a just war. Moreover, once hostilities are begun, it makes sense for a nation defending itself to win.

On Radio National, Lees said his organisation’s major demonstrations on October 6 would “mark one year since Israel’s genocide in Gaza began, a genocide that has killed over 42,000 people”.

This is a grossly misleading statement. For starters, the figures come from Hamas, Gaza’s ruling dictatorship. Moreover, the figure includes Hamas fighters – it is estimated that around 18,000 terrorists have died in conflict.

The death of civilians, including women and children, is a sad fact of all conflicts – which Hamas should have considered when it broke the Israel-Hamas ceasefire arrangement a year ago and Hezbollah should understand now.

Peter Lerner served as an international spokesman for the IDF for eight months after October 7. In this capacity, he clashed with Sarah Ferguson on ABC TV’s 7.30 program last April. Lerner said the IDF’s attack on a World Central Kitchen aid convoy in Gaza – that led to the death of Australian Zomi Frankcom, among others – was an accident in the fog of war. Ferguson said she did not believe him. The subsequent evidence indicates that Lerner was correct.

Addressing The Sydney Institute on July 17, Lerner, who comes from the left of Israel’s politics, said the IDF went out of its way to avoid civilian casualties, even to the extent of putting its own soldiers at risk by providing advance notice of its military intentions. That’s not genocide.

It is important that just wars be won – despite civilian casualties. It is estimated that between 13,000 and 20,000 French civilians died during Operation Overlord, which ran from D-Day on June 6, 1944. There were enormous numbers of civilian deaths due to the Royal Air Force’s bombing of German cities in World War II.

Likewise with the US Air Force’s firebombing of Tokyo and nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. But total defeat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan was a necessity.

Clearly the military strength of Hamas and Hezbollah has been depleted. In view of this, the appropriate way to end the killing is for the terrorist organisations to surrender.

On Wednesday, Liberal Party senator Dave Sharma, a former Australian ambassador to Israel, was interviewed by Ferguson on 7.30. He said Israel was entitled to defend itself – even to the extent of striking Hezbollah’s personnel and weapons in Lebanon. The following morning, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles said on RN Breakfast: “Israel clearly has a right to defend itself.” But he called for a 21-day ceasefire.

No doubt this comment is well intended. But it is difficult to see how the attack on Israel by Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran will cease by anything other than Iran backing off and its Islamist proxies surrendering or desisting in the face of military force.

In short, it makes sense to follow Maher, not Lees. Moreover the defeat of Israel’s current enemies would make a settlement between Israel and those who want a Palestinian state more likely.

Gerard Henderson is executive director of The Sydney Institute. His Media Watch Dog blog can be found at www.theaustralian.com.au