Labor MP Josh Burns denounces ceasefire calls
Jewish-Australian Labor MP Josh Burns has pushed back at those calling for a ceasefire in Gaza after visiting the site of a Hamas massacre in Israel.
Jewish-Australian Labor MP Josh Burns has pushed back at those calling for a ceasefire in Gaza after visiting the site of a Hamas massacre in Israel, declaring that a premature peace settlement would allow the terror organisation to regroup and pose an unacceptable ongoing threat.
Visiting the Kfar Aza kibbutz in southern Israel with a bipartisan group of Australian MPs, Mr Burns made the comments amid a new political debate at home ignited by Labor frontbencher Ed Husic’s warning in recent days that Australians who expressed concern for Palestinians were now facing “our generation of McCarthyism.”
The parallel was condemned by Jewish groups who warned their community was facing the “worst wave of anti-Semitism since World War II” and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton who said Mr Husic’s comments had gone “too far”.
Sydney City Council also came under fire on Tuesday for passing a resolution on Monday night calling for an “immediate and permanent ceasefire” in Israel without any mention of Hamas’ massacre of civilians and its taking of hostages on October 7.
Liberal councillor Lyndon Gannon said the council was “not the UN” after unsuccessfully trying to amend the motion put by Greens’ councillor Sylvie Ellsmore and backed by Lord Mayor Clover Moore. “It’s needlessly stoking tension in the community, which could be the match in the tinder box that sets something off,” Ms Gannon said. “(Ratepayers) want us to pick up the bins. That’s what number one issue is.”
Speaking from Israel, Mr Burns said he felt a sense of shock at the devastation in the Kfar Aza kibbutz where an estimated 50 people were killed in the October 7 terrorist attack, saying there would be “no tolerance” in Australia for Hamas if the nation suffered a similar attack.
“You could see the bullet holes; you could see the grenade shrapnel; you could see the burnt-out buildings,” he said. “The people who live in these places are people who are essentially the left-wing socialists of Israel … and just brutally, brutally massacred in their homes. No society would accept that threat … The reality is, this is a terrorist organisation. And if this would have happened in Australia, there would be no tolerance for that.”
Mr Burns said any ceasefire could not be a “one-way thing”.
“If Israel were to stop the pursuit of Hamas and Hamas were able to regroup, then there is a heightened risk of October 7 happening again, and no country would consider that,” he said.
Mr Husic, the Industry and Science Minister, condemned the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas on ABC radio. But he also pushed for a ceasefire that involved the release of Israeli hostages and an end to the military action taken by Israel that had killed innocent Palestinians.
He said those raising objections to the Israeli military campaign in Gaza wanted to “stand with humanity” and defended the ability of Australian workers – including actors, journalists and doctors – to speak out against Israel’s military campaign without facing “professional retribution.”
“If people express a view, and have the decency to show heart in relation to what’s happening in Gaza and … are then (are) effectively professionally black-listed – I don’t think that’s right.”
NSW Liberal senator Dave Sharma, a former ambassador to Israel, said McCarthyism was the persecution of public officials for disloyalty, subversion and allegiance to communism without any evidence. “Some of its highest-profile victims were in fact Jewish,” he said. “To claim there is a new McCarthyism in Australia is entirely wrong. People are free to express their political opinions in Australia.”
Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council Executive Director, Colin Rubenstein, said it was “not McCarthyism to expect journalists to adhere to the basic requirement of objectivity which most Australians would also expect”.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said Mr Husic’s remarks on Tuesday showed “a complete lack of empathy”.
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