It's Israel's duty to remove the Hamas scourge - only then peace will have a chance

Tasmania shares a link with the bid for a Jewish homeland that some locals still oppose, says Brendan Blomeley.

Published in the Mercury on Wednesday, 20 December 2023 (see here).

From a safe distance of some 14,000 kms, I have despaired at the ongoing tragedy in Israel and Gaza and feel moved to provide a viewpoint which is expressly my own and does not necessarily represent the views of any of the organisations with which I am associated.

I am sure my general view echoes that of broad community sentiment which is a desire for peace. Since the October 7 terror attacks by Hamas, specifically targeting Jewish civilians with unspeakable acts of depravity and murder, an alarming trend of antisemitism is increasingly evident including, sadly, in Tasmania.

I echo the words of the Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, when he called for strong leadership to lower the temperature giving rise to antisemitic tensions. Mr Dutton said “I fear there will be a significant act within our country that will cause harm to people in the Jewish community or the community more broadly at a time when temperatures are rising”. We must not allow this to happen.

The historical, archaeological, documentary, and direct evidence confirm undeniable links that the Jews have with Judea going back more than 3,000 years.

Israel is a tiny nation with a land mass of less than one-third the size of Tasmania and represents less than one percent of the Arabian Peninsula. Then Tasmanian Premier, Robert Cosgrove, wrote in 1941 that a settlement of Jewish migrants should be established in Tasmania, with Port Davey being the site of a potential new Jewish homeland. But Jewish hearts were set on the Judean homeland and Jerusalem, the City of David.

In the theatre of the Middle East, no player can claim blood-free hands, and I include Israel in that mix. However, certain actors deserve greater condemnation than others.

I find it perplexing that Israel is the subject of visceral condemnation, particularly from the left, while those same voices remain muted when great atrocities take place in nearby countries. Where were the flag waving protestors when at least 350,000 Syrians were killed by the tyrannical President Bashar al-Assad regime? Where were the dissenters when similar numbers of Yemenis were killed during revolutionary uprisings? Where were the voices of despair when over 100,000 Lebanese were killed and more than a million displaced in a bloody civil war?

There is a common actor in Gaza, Syria, Yemen, and Lebanon. In Gaza there is the Iranian backed Hamas, in Syria and Lebanon there is the Iranian backed Hezbollah, and in Yemen there is the Iranian backed Houthi. Are you beginning to see a pattern here?

Looking specifically at Hamas, and their charter with its 36 articles under the title of “The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement” there are explicit and frightening anti-Israel and anti-western doctrines. The charter echoes the “Three Noes” resolution emanating from the Arab League summit held in Khartoum in 1967: No peace with Israel, No recognition with Israel, No negotiations with Israel.

In the words of Iranian Major General Hassan Firouzabadi in 2012 “The Iranian nation is standing for its cause and that is the full annihilation of Israel”. The Iranian objective is first the destruction of Israel, then the destruction of the USA and The West.

Contrast this with enlightened, multicultural, democratic, libertarian, and freedom loving Israel. Despite every attempt to malign her, Israel stands proudly beside Australia and our allies on values and philosophies.

Indeed, Israeli Arabs are free to participate in Israel’s political and judicial systems and every echelon of society. Ten Arabs currently sit in the Knesset, having been democratically elected, including Iman Khatib-Yassin a hijab-wearing women representing the United Arab List Party. When disgraced former Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, was charged with several corruption offences, it was Salim Joubran, an Arab Israeli Supreme Court justice, who sentenced him.

My heart’s desire is freedom and peace for Israel, for Palestine, and for all people. To quote the 7th President of the United States, Andrew Jackson, “Peace, above all things, is to be desired, but blood must sometimes be spilled to obtain it on equable and lasting terms.”

We must not allow the left to hijack this conflict for their own anti-western and anti-capitalist desire for revolutionary change. It is Israel’s right, indeed duty, to eviscerate the scourge of Hamas, and only then peace will have a chance.?

Shalom.

Brendan Blomeley is the Mayor of Clarence City Council. His views here are personal.