The fact the media immediately resorted to "both-siding" reporting of this attack is disgusting. After the March women's protest and its idiocy involving the saluting men-in-black I was immediately cynical to the govt's response of banning Nazi symbolism. I said before and say again that Australia's Jews have 1000x more to fear from leftist anti-Zionists than they do from a tiny minority of right-wing dickheads.
This is just one more sign of how unhinged the progressive movement has become. With issues such as obligatory anti-Zionism, gender ideology and performative denunciation of Western culture we are reaching "peak leftism". Israel as a nation-state and Jews have become acceptable targets since they are now perceived as part of Western culture vis-a-vis "the other" which per progressive dogma must be uncritically worshipped. Unfortunately JS has pointed out that many progressive Jews have succumbed to the pressure to "self-denounce" by making performative anti-Israeli statements. What we are seeing is precisely the social dynamics that produced revolutionary terror and the gulags: a group of people with a messianistic moral superiority imposing their values on others, fortunately today they do not have the power to kill (here at least).
If there is any positive outcome that can arise from this tragedy it should be closure of naive sympathy Westerners have toward Arab nationalism. The Arab-Israeli conflict is not about territory and politics or religion, it is ultimately a battle between civilization and barbarism, our weakness is that we must show the very tolerance and observance of human rights the other side if free to disregard.
Good luck to Austraila's Jews - please know that others are aware of what is happening and are on your side.
Thank you Fredro. I think you're right that Jews have more to fear from left-wing anti-Zionists than from right wingers because this ideology is pervasive in our cultural institutions and among the elites. Even I failed to grasp the extent of the problem. Until now.
Let's not attempt to engage rationally with the complex of issues in this terrible conflict. Just cut to the essentials and forget about facts, history and politics. Good old Manichaeism has the score.
It's all about good versus evil, light versus darkness, or as Frodo puts it, 'a battle between civilization and barbarism.' And we all know who the dastardly Orcs are in this contest, right!
Once we've named them, no need to consider what grievances they might have. It's self evident - they are unspeakably evil and motivated by nothing else.
Multiple Hollywood movies are at work here, where the final solution always is, more men and firepower to tame the savages. Reservations don't seem to work, so let's just kill them all.
That's the only sure way we can bring peace to Dodge City, or to the Shire, or to Eretz (select whichever simple narrative has captivated your simple mind).
Oct 20, 2023·edited Oct 20, 2023Liked by Julie Szego
Thank you Julie for writing this piece that powerfully expresses so much of what I feel. The horror of the pogrom was shocking beyond belief in its brutality. Hamas' charter, which is the destruction of Israel and genocide of Jews, is somehow overlooked in almost all reportage and opinion pieces regarding the events in Israel. That its charter is not widely acknowledged, not central to the discussion , allows the pro - Palestinian 'lobby' to adopt a stance of advocating for Palestinians as an oppressed group whilst ignoring the realpolitik of Israel - that is, its persistent existential threat. I desperately listen for calls for Israel's right to exist at these pro-Palestinian rallies which purportedly represent human rights. On this is silence. I feel sick with anguish and sorrow when I think of Palestinian women and children and men who are innocent victims of retaliatory rockets from Israel that target Hamas, but I hear no equivalent empathy for the Jewish and Israeli victims of Hamas. Not from the Pro Palestinian rallies. I want to hear the Pro Palestians say that Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish nation. Instead I hear chants of " from the river to the sea" at the rallies , which is code for the eradication of Israel. Apparently these upholders of morality see no problem with a Jewish genocide. With the appalling news of the hospital bombing in Gaza, Australian news sites immediately reported there was no evidence that Israel had sent the rocket- which Hamas and local Gazan civilians claimed, and whilst investigations were ongoing. Despite this, many reporters commented in the next sentence on the appalling act if the rocket was Israeli . If it was true they would be correct. But at that point they did not know, and no equivalent comment was made about Hamas. This despite the fact that Israel is a democracy whilst Hamas is a terrorist organisation. Israel's policy is NOT to target civilians whilst Hamas clearly does - remember ?? Increasing evidence states it was a failed Hamas rocket that destroyed the hospital and that hundreds of others have failed and fallen in Gaza( presumably also with human casualties). The outcry to this? - I am waiting for it. Hamas exhorts Gazan civilians to remain in areas which Israel has given notice to evacuate in advance of attacks. I am waiting for Pro Palestinian groups to call for the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state with equal rights for all its citizens. All I hear, when Palestinian leaders in the diaspora tell the crowds to stick to the main game and refrain from racist chants that we heard (fuck the Jews, Gas the Jews) , instead I hear "from the river to the sea" ( Jewish genocide), or Intafada ( kill the Jews). Palestinians need self determination. There have been no elections since Hamas took over in 2007. And Israel has the right to exist with security and also the obligation to protect its citizens, just like every other country and state.
That pretty much covers it Ann. Astonishing that there is zero-- zero-- discussion in the progressive press about Hamas using civilians as human shields.
When I lived in The Netherlands over 40 years ago - I remember the Israel / Palestine conflict was already there. The ONLY solution ALWAYS was to have 2 states Israel and Palestine. The fact that we ended up with an occupied Gaza for so many years - I'm not surprised by this outcome. - But I'm devastated.
I agree about the two state solution. It is worth remembering this is what was originally proposed and agreed to by the Jewish people but the Arabic population opposed it and invaded a day after Jewish independence was proclaimed. It has been a mess ever since.
I have been a long ime observer of the conflict since the PLO days and I have to say I was, and am still shocked to almost disbelief that any human being could possibly participate in the horrors that have been described. Even in my wildest nightmares I can barely comprehend what was endured by the victims in Israel only two weeks ago. But what was worse for me, if that is even possible, was hearing people justify and even celebrate these acts. The world will never be the same for me.
Your comments about the Caulfield Park precinct which is indeed reflective of much of Caulfield, indicate less to me of Jewish nationalism, than how much of Caulfield reflects the beauty and peace of Jewish culture. I could not help but see in the defiled beauty of the kibbutzes and farms which occurred on that disastrous October day, the destruction of culture and homely comfort that I see on an almost daily basis in Caulfield and Balaclava. Make no mistake, October 7 was a premeditated effort to wipe out Israel, and if it were not for the effectiveness of the defence Dome and the preparedness of the IDF I have little doubt that Hezbollah would have launched an attack which is why the US fleet were so prompt in getting to Israel. Few people have an understanding of the capacity of the two biggest naval ships in the world, the USS Gerald Ford and Nimitz. For the Western media to immediately adopt and publicise the Hamas lie that the IDF attacked the hospital was nothing less than appalling journalism at least, and terrorist sympathising at worst. Again what many people do not understand, is that the IDF has Gaza and has had Gaza, under 24/7 monitoring, for years, electronically, visually and technologically. Using physics and computer algorithms consistent with GPS tracking systems, the location of each rocket launch from Gaza can be identified with reasonable precision. Within a few hours the IDF made it public that their detection systems had identified that the rocket which exploded, not on the hospital, but in the hospital car park, had been fired from a cemetery close to the hospital. The trajectory of the rocket was recorded and filmed exploding in flames and crashing to Earth in the hospital grounds. The explosion which was at and slightly above ground level, understandably incinerated all those sheltering in the hospital grounds. The size of the incineration was the result of the huge fuel load the rocket was carrying to get it to Tel Aviv. Electronic intercepts recorded Hamas operatives discussing the rocket failure. And despite this empirical evidence, sympathisers of Hamas are denying the truth. I guess that denial is to be expected. The IDF has no choice but to go into Gaza and destroy the network of tunnels and attack command centres. A failure to do so will see a repetition of this terrorist activity in years to come. Gaza in the early 2000s became a captive of Hamas. The Palestinians became subjects of Hamas domination and also became hostages to Hamas war effort. Civilian areas above ground were cleverly converted to military munitions storage areas and attack posts either in the building or below it. Gaza is not an independent country. Israel made the mistake in 1967 of acting responsibly and ceding back control of Gaza to the Palestinians who lived there. Prior to that it was under British, then Egyptian control. Since then under the control of a politico-terrorist group committed to the destruction of neighbouring Israel. Israel must destroy the subterranean military infrastructure in Gaza. There is no choice. And when Blinken and Biden warned neighbouring countries and “actors” not to take advantage of the position in which Israel now finds itself, when both linked and Biden said “Don’t. Don’t. Just don’t”, what they did not say was that the military fury of the USS Gerald Ford and Nimitz and other US forces in the Mediterranean would be unleashed. And Iran knows that. GPS tracking g devices on massive, massive rockets on board the USS Gerald Ford will have been programmed for one destination: the political and nuclear infrastructure in Teheran. The only thing Blinken and Biden did not say, in the words of Clint Eastwood’s “Dirty Harry”, is, “go ahead…..make my day”.
Thank you for this characteristically balanced and thought-provoking piece on this horrific crisis. I have been shocked and appalled at the lack of empathy for, nay the celebration of, the grievous loss of innocent Jewish lives. The hypocrisy on display in the MSM and commentary on social media is incredible. Plainly, many people believe a Jewish state of any kind should not exist, particularly in the Middle East. I feel deeply sorry for the Palestinian people who are also suffering and dying as a result of the actions of Hamas and terror groups like it. When sympathisers shout "Free Palestine", I wonder if they even know from whom or what it should look like after their stated goal is achieved?
That's certainly my impression too Matt-- so I'm glad to hear it said from someone with authority on the subject. (And while I have you here: a huge thank you for your support.)
I am not a Jew but I totally support Israel in this war. One of my co-workers lived on a kibbutz that was over run by Hamass. She was shot and her corpse was left booby trapped. That same kibbutz is one of the ones that had Thai workers who were either killed or kidnapped by Hamass
I have a certain sympathy for the West Bank Palestinians but I have none for the Gazans who have squandered all the resources and self government they were given.
Oh that is so shocking about your co-worker Francis. On the Gazans; interesting how the left ENTIRELY strips them of agency-- they're just victims, nothing to do with Hamas etc, while ENTIRELY attributing agency to Israeli civilians: they're complicit, they're settlers, they have the power to resist their own government blah blah.
Hi Julie. Thank you for writing this. Though I largely disagree with you, I understand where you are coming from and I appreciate your honesty. I feel that now more than ever we need respect, compassion and unity with those we call "others" rather than a retreat of "taking sides" and sharply drawn boundaries around whether we support Israel or the Palestinians. As a Jew, I don't have a strong identification with Israel - I bleed as much for the suffering Palestinians as I do for the Israeli victims of the Hamas massacre. I'm sorry for the way you ended this piece, with a prayer for the IDF. Military might only leads to more might, to more bloodshed on all sides, and so an ongoing cycle of violence. We must have the courage to say "enough!" and to build peace; and if we fail, we pick ourselves up and start over again. If all this sounds naive, look at the premise, which you support, that the Israeli state is needed to protect Jews from anti-semitism and the possibility of another Holocaust: the reality is that Jews in many countries around the world are far safer and more secure than they have ever been in Israel. Far more naive, in my view, is the belief in military power as a safeguard to security. And may I also finish on a religious note. The Prophets, in seeking to understand the decline and destruction of the historical states of Israel and Judah, identified two main causes: injustice and idolatry. Zip forward 2500 years. Injustice: towards the Palestinians, idolatry: the worship of might and power. "I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, says the Lord." Jeremiah 21.14
Sorry for your sorrows, but I don't value a Jewish life above any other life, irrespective of beliefs, nationality, ethnicity, or other markers of difference. And as for your supporter's absurdly reductionist portrayal of this being a conflict between good and absolute evil, well I'd disassociate myself from such simpletons, if I were you.
The killing of innocent civilians is morally repugnant, whether in war or in peace. But it's their basic humanity that counts, nothing else. As for their murderers, I'm not sure that committing their actions remotely, with missiles and bombs, is any less reprehensible than doing it close up, with the sword. All murder is repugnant.
By the same reasoning, I would take issue with your defence of Israel when you condemn indignantly, 'the suggestion the Israeli government would, in the absence of military provocation, unleash on Palestinian civilians.' Are you willfully ignoring the ongoing oppression and dispossession of Palestinians by Israel since at least 1967?
'Unleash' may not be an apt way to describe the unrelenting bureaucratic and physical mistreatment of these people by Israel - accelerated exponentially under Netanyahu - but that is just a semantic quibble.
Inform yourself, Julie, on how they have to live their daily lives under an apartheid occupation intent on forcing them out of their homes and off their land. Or do you prefer to focus merely on thoughts of peaceful Jews, oops Israelis, in kibbutzim making the deserts fertile?
I think you are too emotionally involved to provide a balanced assessment. Covering your piece with the mantel of 'What a Jew Thinks' doesn't excuse you from your journalistic obligation to avoid obvious bias. I would commend to you something by another journalist, Fintan O' Toole, who has a more factual, moral and unemotional grasp of the whole terrible situation than you have managed this time. Give him a read. See 'Eyeless in Gaza'. www.nybooks.com/online/...via@nybooks
What Hamas did to innocent men, women, children and babies is pure evil. Even animals don't do such barbaric acts. There is no place in civilization for such monsters. Hamas also has a history of killing anyone not Muslim, including Christians.
This is a battle of good vs evil. With God's help, Israel will prevail. The rest of the world needs to decide which side it's on.
"An ABC journalist reporting on the massacre was lashed for expressing scepticism about eye-witness accounts in the Israeli press, since confirmed by Israeli authorities, that Hamas had decapitated babies, and then curated them like some macabre art installation."
This has not been confirmed by Israeli authorities.
The piece I sent you has an actual journalist from a mainstream outlet reporting what a military spokesman said just a few days ago. The piece you sent is from an activist group and their links don't even bear out their reporting.
Mainstream outlets have been at the forefront of spreading disinformation and sensational propaganda about these events.
The "military spokesman" is unnamed and is as potentially untrustworthy as any other Israeli official possibly covering up potentially horrendous crimes committed by the Israeli military. Israeli military authorities, your original claim, have not confirmed reports that 40 babies were beheaded. An independent inquiry would be the only way of establishing the truth.
A horrible attack by Hammas on settlers in Israel. No doubt by psychopaths who seem to rise to the top of revolutionary movements and then take pleasure in barbarism. See the IRA as an example.
I’m not sure what the response by Israel should be but telling one million people to leave their homes is not right.
As an Anglo Saxon descendant I do think, along with many others, that the oppression of Palestinians since 1947 has been wrong. They have been removed from their homeland and forced off their land. Their access to power and water is limited by Israel who doesn’t want a two state solution and yet have caused one.
I see no way out and as usual the innocent suffer.
People have been told to move for their own safety. If I were in that situation I’d have packed whatever I could carry and walk the 20kms. Hamas is telling civilians to stay because they don’t actually care about civilian deaths.
14 Million Germans were expelled from central Europe after WW2. Half my family come from this group - the other half from those who did the displacing. The Germans grumbled for 20 years but eventually settled and got on with their lives. Today you can hike carefree through the borders of these nations. Dispossession is not destiny - life is what you make it.
The Arabs who lost in 1948 could have followed the same path of getting on and rebuilding but they chose not to - to instead stoke intergenerational hatred and vengeance mentality which has kept them stuck in a developmental stage like Oskar Matzerath. The state in which Palestinian Arabs live today is the result of choices the leaders of the wider Arab world made. I started my adult life with a 50/50 view of this conflict but the more I learned of history the lesser my leaning to the Arab cause has been.
I detect a sniff of moral superiority in this sermonising, Kumpel, which reminds me of the outrage in your Heimat, when the impecunious Greeks needed another bailout to hold the EU together. Readers of Bild Zeitung simply didn't understand why the Greeks couldn't be more like Germans - efficient, hardworking and thrifty.
Replace Greeks with Palestinians and we could be back on the pages of that illustrious periodical in 2015. You cannot impose your values, (Protestant Work Ethic included) on another culture and expect them to accept it unquestioningly, or even with gratitude. Not everybody wants to be like the Germans - or the Israelis, for that matter.
And suggesting for the people of Gaza that 'life is what you make it', is not just inordinately foolish, it's also quite offensive and arrogant.
Incidentally, some readers may not get your reference to Oskar Matzerath, the protagonist in an award winning novel by a self confessed one time nazi. I'm unsure what sort of parallel you wish to make here. Nothing suitable to find in Heidegger?
I'm from the other side of the border kumpel (we use lower case). The point I was making is that plenty of nations have fought wars and lost territory and had millions displaced - my own country of birth was partitioned 4 times mind you. Most get on with their lives rebuilding things rather than storing hate into a multigenerational battery. Given the trillions from the oil booms since 1948 the Arab states could have built the Palestinians a Disneyland, instead they kept them as pawns to exploit.
You are right about cultural values - they are precisely the underlying cause of the intractability of this conflict. It is based on the Arabs' apparent tribal incapacity to forgive and see others as equals. That crazy rage you see in the militants is the outrage that the people they deem inferior to them are in fact dominant over them.
I'm a Wittgensteinian not a Heideggerian, the truth is everything that is the case. What is the case is Israel is there and is there for good. Anti-zionism is a fantasy belief system (a revenge fantasy), a bit like those confederate reenactors imagining retro-winning the civil war. The longer Western useful idiots keep handing the Arab nationalist side false hope the longer they prolong their and Israelis' suffering. Is it offensive and arrogant to say "stop poking the dog with a stick so it won't bite back?"
You must acknowledge that you are tending to generalise from very select examples. If, after 1918, your country of birth had simply got on with rebuilding - seemingly your preferred or recommended response for all the vanquished - there wouldn't have been another outbreak of war in 1939. Plainly, the terms imposed by the Allies at Versailles were insufferable, and by being overly punitive, they laid the ground for an inevitable recontestation.
Another defeated people, historically overrun by enemies, dispossessed and sent into multiple exiles, didn't just lie down and get on with living. All lamented, but some revolted repeatedly. Today, with the help of the UN, they are back in Israel - and still fighting.
The people of Ireland, conquered and colonised by their bigger neighbour for hundreds of years, also kept up a resistance. Finally, after regular rebellions and brutal putdowns, they created their own nation (with still a few more counties to go)!
Not wanting to enumerate further, I'd conclude that conquered folk generally don't take kindly to being conquered, occupied and exploited. The victors would surely love it if they just accepted their lot and got on with their lives and rebuilding. Some do, of necessity, but mostly they dream on and await a day of reckoning when they hope to be restored. 'Next year in Jerusalem,' expresses it poignantly.
My point is, what you term 'intractability' isn't a cultural fault or tribal impediment. To the Romans, it might have seemed so, in say a Spartacus or a bar Kokhba, but that is always the perspective of the conquerors. From another perspective, it is the essence of the very human aspiration to freedom and self determination.
To take up your analogy and reword it, if you believe a dog is squatting on your territory, is it unreasonable to pick up a stick to try to expel it, knowing with certainty that it can bite?
Whether you regard the action as stupid or heroic, probably depends on your elected affinities. But definitely expect more bloodshed.
It is reasonable to put down the stick if the result will be a glass half-full of keeping the remainder of your territory to build your state, albeit 75 years after you could have begun the job (and with far more land). Poland and Germany both lost plenty of historical territories in WW2 but they eventually accepted it and got on with life.
We can argue about historical analogies forever or who did what to whom first, but what is determinant of the outcome of this conflict is the balance of power at present. Israel cannot be defeated, only hurt. The militants are only capable of spoiling things for others and their own people, not building any positive outcome - precisely like the Russians trying to spoil the possibility of their neighbours having a better life without them. Surrender is an option is the other side is humane and willing to be reasonable.
I would challenge any supporter of the Palestinian cause to choose whether they would live in Israel or any neighbouring Arab country. When your own compatriots enjoy greater human rights as a minority living under your purported mortal enemy, what can you actually offer your own people with self-determination? A better dictator?
Your reasoning or calculus of power is seriously flawed. If it applied, then the people of Afghanistan would have surrendered to the Russians, or to the Americans. Instead, using what you call 'spoiling things', they forced both of these superpowers to withdraw. Let's not even consider Vietnam here, or more recently, Iraq.
And I think the popular notion of Israeli supremacy just took a serious battering. While spending over $24 billion annually on its military, it still manages to be caught off guard - incredibly - twice in a row. I'm honestly not mocking or denigrating here, I'm just pointing out a few sober facts. Superior weapons technology seems particularly vulnerable to a sometimes crude, but highly determined enemy and the terrain from which they come. You might recollect from your school history 'die Schlacht im Teutoburger Wald.'
What has been happening to Palestinians and the Bedouin in Israel since 1967, is neither humane nor acceptable. There is nothing reasonable or civilised about continuously appropriating their land and housing, creating an apartheid state where their rights and freedoms are severely curtailed, and where fanatical Jewish settlers with the protection of the IDF, can harass and even kill with impunity.
Perhaps it's time for your metaphorical 'dog' to reconsider the entire relationship, why, though it wins in every outright war, it is constantly hemorrhaging money on defence, but still cannot sleep in peace or security. Maybe it's time to reassess the canine ways in which it interacts with the stick wielder, who is still contesting the same territory.
You know, Fredro, a lot of people would prefer to continue herding their goats and growing their olives in the deserts, and wouldn't ever consider changing that for cocktails and blintzes in Tel Aviv.
You may not comprehend it, but the choice between a basic traditional life on your own land, or one of relative material wealth and opulence living in someone else's zoo, isn't as clear cut as you imply.
Don't underestimate the desire of a people for a sense of self-esteem and national pride, compared to the increase in material prosperity they might gain instead, if living under the control of their enemy.
Megan, In response to what you write I would like to point out that the UN resolution of 1947 divided then Palestine into 2: one area for the Jews and one for the Arabs, now Palestinians b/c it was clear they could not live together. The resolution required bot communities to be in an economic union and specified Jerusalem as an international city. The Jews accepted the partition and the State of Israel was established in 1948. The Arabs did not and, instead, chose to go to war. A quick glance at the map of partition shows it to be unworkable (in MHO). Had the Arabs, as they then were, not gone to war, they might well have got what they wanted - Palestine from the river to the sea. In addition Britain scarpered as they did in Africa and that didn't help matters
Being a bit one-sided, are we, Megan? Remember your psychopaths are freedom fighters to the oppressed and colonised. It's easy to dismiss those who fight occupation as mentally unstable, but that just indicates your inabilty to comprehend the political situation. The IRA achieved 26 counties and it's only a matter of time before the remaining 6 are reunited. Probably not a good example for you, an Anglo Saxon, to drag in this time.
The fact the media immediately resorted to "both-siding" reporting of this attack is disgusting. After the March women's protest and its idiocy involving the saluting men-in-black I was immediately cynical to the govt's response of banning Nazi symbolism. I said before and say again that Australia's Jews have 1000x more to fear from leftist anti-Zionists than they do from a tiny minority of right-wing dickheads.
This is just one more sign of how unhinged the progressive movement has become. With issues such as obligatory anti-Zionism, gender ideology and performative denunciation of Western culture we are reaching "peak leftism". Israel as a nation-state and Jews have become acceptable targets since they are now perceived as part of Western culture vis-a-vis "the other" which per progressive dogma must be uncritically worshipped. Unfortunately JS has pointed out that many progressive Jews have succumbed to the pressure to "self-denounce" by making performative anti-Israeli statements. What we are seeing is precisely the social dynamics that produced revolutionary terror and the gulags: a group of people with a messianistic moral superiority imposing their values on others, fortunately today they do not have the power to kill (here at least).
If there is any positive outcome that can arise from this tragedy it should be closure of naive sympathy Westerners have toward Arab nationalism. The Arab-Israeli conflict is not about territory and politics or religion, it is ultimately a battle between civilization and barbarism, our weakness is that we must show the very tolerance and observance of human rights the other side if free to disregard.
Good luck to Austraila's Jews - please know that others are aware of what is happening and are on your side.
Thank you Fredro. I think you're right that Jews have more to fear from left-wing anti-Zionists than from right wingers because this ideology is pervasive in our cultural institutions and among the elites. Even I failed to grasp the extent of the problem. Until now.
Here we go again.
Let's not attempt to engage rationally with the complex of issues in this terrible conflict. Just cut to the essentials and forget about facts, history and politics. Good old Manichaeism has the score.
It's all about good versus evil, light versus darkness, or as Frodo puts it, 'a battle between civilization and barbarism.' And we all know who the dastardly Orcs are in this contest, right!
Once we've named them, no need to consider what grievances they might have. It's self evident - they are unspeakably evil and motivated by nothing else.
Multiple Hollywood movies are at work here, where the final solution always is, more men and firepower to tame the savages. Reservations don't seem to work, so let's just kill them all.
That's the only sure way we can bring peace to Dodge City, or to the Shire, or to Eretz (select whichever simple narrative has captivated your simple mind).
Until the next uprising, of course!
Thank you Julie for writing this piece that powerfully expresses so much of what I feel. The horror of the pogrom was shocking beyond belief in its brutality. Hamas' charter, which is the destruction of Israel and genocide of Jews, is somehow overlooked in almost all reportage and opinion pieces regarding the events in Israel. That its charter is not widely acknowledged, not central to the discussion , allows the pro - Palestinian 'lobby' to adopt a stance of advocating for Palestinians as an oppressed group whilst ignoring the realpolitik of Israel - that is, its persistent existential threat. I desperately listen for calls for Israel's right to exist at these pro-Palestinian rallies which purportedly represent human rights. On this is silence. I feel sick with anguish and sorrow when I think of Palestinian women and children and men who are innocent victims of retaliatory rockets from Israel that target Hamas, but I hear no equivalent empathy for the Jewish and Israeli victims of Hamas. Not from the Pro Palestinian rallies. I want to hear the Pro Palestians say that Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish nation. Instead I hear chants of " from the river to the sea" at the rallies , which is code for the eradication of Israel. Apparently these upholders of morality see no problem with a Jewish genocide. With the appalling news of the hospital bombing in Gaza, Australian news sites immediately reported there was no evidence that Israel had sent the rocket- which Hamas and local Gazan civilians claimed, and whilst investigations were ongoing. Despite this, many reporters commented in the next sentence on the appalling act if the rocket was Israeli . If it was true they would be correct. But at that point they did not know, and no equivalent comment was made about Hamas. This despite the fact that Israel is a democracy whilst Hamas is a terrorist organisation. Israel's policy is NOT to target civilians whilst Hamas clearly does - remember ?? Increasing evidence states it was a failed Hamas rocket that destroyed the hospital and that hundreds of others have failed and fallen in Gaza( presumably also with human casualties). The outcry to this? - I am waiting for it. Hamas exhorts Gazan civilians to remain in areas which Israel has given notice to evacuate in advance of attacks. I am waiting for Pro Palestinian groups to call for the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state with equal rights for all its citizens. All I hear, when Palestinian leaders in the diaspora tell the crowds to stick to the main game and refrain from racist chants that we heard (fuck the Jews, Gas the Jews) , instead I hear "from the river to the sea" ( Jewish genocide), or Intafada ( kill the Jews). Palestinians need self determination. There have been no elections since Hamas took over in 2007. And Israel has the right to exist with security and also the obligation to protect its citizens, just like every other country and state.
That pretty much covers it Ann. Astonishing that there is zero-- zero-- discussion in the progressive press about Hamas using civilians as human shields.
When I lived in The Netherlands over 40 years ago - I remember the Israel / Palestine conflict was already there. The ONLY solution ALWAYS was to have 2 states Israel and Palestine. The fact that we ended up with an occupied Gaza for so many years - I'm not surprised by this outcome. - But I'm devastated.
I agree about the two state solution. It is worth remembering this is what was originally proposed and agreed to by the Jewish people but the Arabic population opposed it and invaded a day after Jewish independence was proclaimed. It has been a mess ever since.
I have been a long ime observer of the conflict since the PLO days and I have to say I was, and am still shocked to almost disbelief that any human being could possibly participate in the horrors that have been described. Even in my wildest nightmares I can barely comprehend what was endured by the victims in Israel only two weeks ago. But what was worse for me, if that is even possible, was hearing people justify and even celebrate these acts. The world will never be the same for me.
I can totally relate to that feeling Ivana; that the world will never be the same. x
Your comments about the Caulfield Park precinct which is indeed reflective of much of Caulfield, indicate less to me of Jewish nationalism, than how much of Caulfield reflects the beauty and peace of Jewish culture. I could not help but see in the defiled beauty of the kibbutzes and farms which occurred on that disastrous October day, the destruction of culture and homely comfort that I see on an almost daily basis in Caulfield and Balaclava. Make no mistake, October 7 was a premeditated effort to wipe out Israel, and if it were not for the effectiveness of the defence Dome and the preparedness of the IDF I have little doubt that Hezbollah would have launched an attack which is why the US fleet were so prompt in getting to Israel. Few people have an understanding of the capacity of the two biggest naval ships in the world, the USS Gerald Ford and Nimitz. For the Western media to immediately adopt and publicise the Hamas lie that the IDF attacked the hospital was nothing less than appalling journalism at least, and terrorist sympathising at worst. Again what many people do not understand, is that the IDF has Gaza and has had Gaza, under 24/7 monitoring, for years, electronically, visually and technologically. Using physics and computer algorithms consistent with GPS tracking systems, the location of each rocket launch from Gaza can be identified with reasonable precision. Within a few hours the IDF made it public that their detection systems had identified that the rocket which exploded, not on the hospital, but in the hospital car park, had been fired from a cemetery close to the hospital. The trajectory of the rocket was recorded and filmed exploding in flames and crashing to Earth in the hospital grounds. The explosion which was at and slightly above ground level, understandably incinerated all those sheltering in the hospital grounds. The size of the incineration was the result of the huge fuel load the rocket was carrying to get it to Tel Aviv. Electronic intercepts recorded Hamas operatives discussing the rocket failure. And despite this empirical evidence, sympathisers of Hamas are denying the truth. I guess that denial is to be expected. The IDF has no choice but to go into Gaza and destroy the network of tunnels and attack command centres. A failure to do so will see a repetition of this terrorist activity in years to come. Gaza in the early 2000s became a captive of Hamas. The Palestinians became subjects of Hamas domination and also became hostages to Hamas war effort. Civilian areas above ground were cleverly converted to military munitions storage areas and attack posts either in the building or below it. Gaza is not an independent country. Israel made the mistake in 1967 of acting responsibly and ceding back control of Gaza to the Palestinians who lived there. Prior to that it was under British, then Egyptian control. Since then under the control of a politico-terrorist group committed to the destruction of neighbouring Israel. Israel must destroy the subterranean military infrastructure in Gaza. There is no choice. And when Blinken and Biden warned neighbouring countries and “actors” not to take advantage of the position in which Israel now finds itself, when both linked and Biden said “Don’t. Don’t. Just don’t”, what they did not say was that the military fury of the USS Gerald Ford and Nimitz and other US forces in the Mediterranean would be unleashed. And Iran knows that. GPS tracking g devices on massive, massive rockets on board the USS Gerald Ford will have been programmed for one destination: the political and nuclear infrastructure in Teheran. The only thing Blinken and Biden did not say, in the words of Clint Eastwood’s “Dirty Harry”, is, “go ahead…..make my day”.
I won't lie Peter: your post made me cry!
Thank you for this characteristically balanced and thought-provoking piece on this horrific crisis. I have been shocked and appalled at the lack of empathy for, nay the celebration of, the grievous loss of innocent Jewish lives. The hypocrisy on display in the MSM and commentary on social media is incredible. Plainly, many people believe a Jewish state of any kind should not exist, particularly in the Middle East. I feel deeply sorry for the Palestinian people who are also suffering and dying as a result of the actions of Hamas and terror groups like it. When sympathisers shout "Free Palestine", I wonder if they even know from whom or what it should look like after their stated goal is achieved?
Indeed-- especially "the queers" for Palestine. Though I'm grateful to them-- they've provided moments of much needed mirth...
Absolutely. Perhaps the most unintentionally hilarious and ironic group ever conceived.
IN THE END, WE WILL REMEMBER NOT THE WORDS OF OUR ENEMIES, BUT THE SILENCE OF OUR FRIENDS.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
The longer Israel takes in moving the more confidence I feel about what they do next.
That's certainly my impression too Matt-- so I'm glad to hear it said from someone with authority on the subject. (And while I have you here: a huge thank you for your support.)
I am not a Jew but I totally support Israel in this war. One of my co-workers lived on a kibbutz that was over run by Hamass. She was shot and her corpse was left booby trapped. That same kibbutz is one of the ones that had Thai workers who were either killed or kidnapped by Hamass
I have a certain sympathy for the West Bank Palestinians but I have none for the Gazans who have squandered all the resources and self government they were given.
Oh that is so shocking about your co-worker Francis. On the Gazans; interesting how the left ENTIRELY strips them of agency-- they're just victims, nothing to do with Hamas etc, while ENTIRELY attributing agency to Israeli civilians: they're complicit, they're settlers, they have the power to resist their own government blah blah.
Hi Julie. Thank you for writing this. Though I largely disagree with you, I understand where you are coming from and I appreciate your honesty. I feel that now more than ever we need respect, compassion and unity with those we call "others" rather than a retreat of "taking sides" and sharply drawn boundaries around whether we support Israel or the Palestinians. As a Jew, I don't have a strong identification with Israel - I bleed as much for the suffering Palestinians as I do for the Israeli victims of the Hamas massacre. I'm sorry for the way you ended this piece, with a prayer for the IDF. Military might only leads to more might, to more bloodshed on all sides, and so an ongoing cycle of violence. We must have the courage to say "enough!" and to build peace; and if we fail, we pick ourselves up and start over again. If all this sounds naive, look at the premise, which you support, that the Israeli state is needed to protect Jews from anti-semitism and the possibility of another Holocaust: the reality is that Jews in many countries around the world are far safer and more secure than they have ever been in Israel. Far more naive, in my view, is the belief in military power as a safeguard to security. And may I also finish on a religious note. The Prophets, in seeking to understand the decline and destruction of the historical states of Israel and Judah, identified two main causes: injustice and idolatry. Zip forward 2500 years. Injustice: towards the Palestinians, idolatry: the worship of might and power. "I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, says the Lord." Jeremiah 21.14
https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-shows-foreign-press-raw-hamas-bodycam-videos-of-murder-torture-decapitation/?utm_campaign=daily-edition-2023-10-23&utm_medium=email&utm_source=The+Daily+Edition
https://www.youtube.com?watch?v=q_nWrtpqCU
FYI
Sorry for your sorrows, but I don't value a Jewish life above any other life, irrespective of beliefs, nationality, ethnicity, or other markers of difference. And as for your supporter's absurdly reductionist portrayal of this being a conflict between good and absolute evil, well I'd disassociate myself from such simpletons, if I were you.
The killing of innocent civilians is morally repugnant, whether in war or in peace. But it's their basic humanity that counts, nothing else. As for their murderers, I'm not sure that committing their actions remotely, with missiles and bombs, is any less reprehensible than doing it close up, with the sword. All murder is repugnant.
By the same reasoning, I would take issue with your defence of Israel when you condemn indignantly, 'the suggestion the Israeli government would, in the absence of military provocation, unleash on Palestinian civilians.' Are you willfully ignoring the ongoing oppression and dispossession of Palestinians by Israel since at least 1967?
'Unleash' may not be an apt way to describe the unrelenting bureaucratic and physical mistreatment of these people by Israel - accelerated exponentially under Netanyahu - but that is just a semantic quibble.
Inform yourself, Julie, on how they have to live their daily lives under an apartheid occupation intent on forcing them out of their homes and off their land. Or do you prefer to focus merely on thoughts of peaceful Jews, oops Israelis, in kibbutzim making the deserts fertile?
I think you are too emotionally involved to provide a balanced assessment. Covering your piece with the mantel of 'What a Jew Thinks' doesn't excuse you from your journalistic obligation to avoid obvious bias. I would commend to you something by another journalist, Fintan O' Toole, who has a more factual, moral and unemotional grasp of the whole terrible situation than you have managed this time. Give him a read. See 'Eyeless in Gaza'. www.nybooks.com/online/...via@nybooks
What Hamas did to innocent men, women, children and babies is pure evil. Even animals don't do such barbaric acts. There is no place in civilization for such monsters. Hamas also has a history of killing anyone not Muslim, including Christians.
This is a battle of good vs evil. With God's help, Israel will prevail. The rest of the world needs to decide which side it's on.
"An ABC journalist reporting on the massacre was lashed for expressing scepticism about eye-witness accounts in the Israeli press, since confirmed by Israeli authorities, that Hamas had decapitated babies, and then curated them like some macabre art installation."
This has not been confirmed by Israeli authorities.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/horror-israeli-authorities-show-footage-hamas-atrocities-reporters-notebook/story?id=104015431
Military spokesman here tells journalists the images exist but won't be released.
The Israeli military has neither confirmed reports that babies were beheaded nor that they were curated like some macabre art installation.
https://us20.campaign-archive.com/?u=e6457f9552de19bc603e65b9c&id=1863a53275
The piece I sent you has an actual journalist from a mainstream outlet reporting what a military spokesman said just a few days ago. The piece you sent is from an activist group and their links don't even bear out their reporting.
Mainstream outlets have been at the forefront of spreading disinformation and sensational propaganda about these events.
The "military spokesman" is unnamed and is as potentially untrustworthy as any other Israeli official possibly covering up potentially horrendous crimes committed by the Israeli military. Israeli military authorities, your original claim, have not confirmed reports that 40 babies were beheaded. An independent inquiry would be the only way of establishing the truth.
In some media there was a question as to how many babies were beheaded
I find the question infuriating . I am not even going to try and answer. As if numbers make a difference
What if the number is zero?
A horrible attack by Hammas on settlers in Israel. No doubt by psychopaths who seem to rise to the top of revolutionary movements and then take pleasure in barbarism. See the IRA as an example.
I’m not sure what the response by Israel should be but telling one million people to leave their homes is not right.
As an Anglo Saxon descendant I do think, along with many others, that the oppression of Palestinians since 1947 has been wrong. They have been removed from their homeland and forced off their land. Their access to power and water is limited by Israel who doesn’t want a two state solution and yet have caused one.
I see no way out and as usual the innocent suffer.
Weep for all the innocents.
People have been told to move for their own safety. If I were in that situation I’d have packed whatever I could carry and walk the 20kms. Hamas is telling civilians to stay because they don’t actually care about civilian deaths.
14 Million Germans were expelled from central Europe after WW2. Half my family come from this group - the other half from those who did the displacing. The Germans grumbled for 20 years but eventually settled and got on with their lives. Today you can hike carefree through the borders of these nations. Dispossession is not destiny - life is what you make it.
The Arabs who lost in 1948 could have followed the same path of getting on and rebuilding but they chose not to - to instead stoke intergenerational hatred and vengeance mentality which has kept them stuck in a developmental stage like Oskar Matzerath. The state in which Palestinian Arabs live today is the result of choices the leaders of the wider Arab world made. I started my adult life with a 50/50 view of this conflict but the more I learned of history the lesser my leaning to the Arab cause has been.
I detect a sniff of moral superiority in this sermonising, Kumpel, which reminds me of the outrage in your Heimat, when the impecunious Greeks needed another bailout to hold the EU together. Readers of Bild Zeitung simply didn't understand why the Greeks couldn't be more like Germans - efficient, hardworking and thrifty.
Replace Greeks with Palestinians and we could be back on the pages of that illustrious periodical in 2015. You cannot impose your values, (Protestant Work Ethic included) on another culture and expect them to accept it unquestioningly, or even with gratitude. Not everybody wants to be like the Germans - or the Israelis, for that matter.
And suggesting for the people of Gaza that 'life is what you make it', is not just inordinately foolish, it's also quite offensive and arrogant.
Incidentally, some readers may not get your reference to Oskar Matzerath, the protagonist in an award winning novel by a self confessed one time nazi. I'm unsure what sort of parallel you wish to make here. Nothing suitable to find in Heidegger?
I'm from the other side of the border kumpel (we use lower case). The point I was making is that plenty of nations have fought wars and lost territory and had millions displaced - my own country of birth was partitioned 4 times mind you. Most get on with their lives rebuilding things rather than storing hate into a multigenerational battery. Given the trillions from the oil booms since 1948 the Arab states could have built the Palestinians a Disneyland, instead they kept them as pawns to exploit.
You are right about cultural values - they are precisely the underlying cause of the intractability of this conflict. It is based on the Arabs' apparent tribal incapacity to forgive and see others as equals. That crazy rage you see in the militants is the outrage that the people they deem inferior to them are in fact dominant over them.
I'm a Wittgensteinian not a Heideggerian, the truth is everything that is the case. What is the case is Israel is there and is there for good. Anti-zionism is a fantasy belief system (a revenge fantasy), a bit like those confederate reenactors imagining retro-winning the civil war. The longer Western useful idiots keep handing the Arab nationalist side false hope the longer they prolong their and Israelis' suffering. Is it offensive and arrogant to say "stop poking the dog with a stick so it won't bite back?"
Genosse Fredro, (whatever your choice).
You must acknowledge that you are tending to generalise from very select examples. If, after 1918, your country of birth had simply got on with rebuilding - seemingly your preferred or recommended response for all the vanquished - there wouldn't have been another outbreak of war in 1939. Plainly, the terms imposed by the Allies at Versailles were insufferable, and by being overly punitive, they laid the ground for an inevitable recontestation.
Another defeated people, historically overrun by enemies, dispossessed and sent into multiple exiles, didn't just lie down and get on with living. All lamented, but some revolted repeatedly. Today, with the help of the UN, they are back in Israel - and still fighting.
The people of Ireland, conquered and colonised by their bigger neighbour for hundreds of years, also kept up a resistance. Finally, after regular rebellions and brutal putdowns, they created their own nation (with still a few more counties to go)!
Not wanting to enumerate further, I'd conclude that conquered folk generally don't take kindly to being conquered, occupied and exploited. The victors would surely love it if they just accepted their lot and got on with their lives and rebuilding. Some do, of necessity, but mostly they dream on and await a day of reckoning when they hope to be restored. 'Next year in Jerusalem,' expresses it poignantly.
My point is, what you term 'intractability' isn't a cultural fault or tribal impediment. To the Romans, it might have seemed so, in say a Spartacus or a bar Kokhba, but that is always the perspective of the conquerors. From another perspective, it is the essence of the very human aspiration to freedom and self determination.
To take up your analogy and reword it, if you believe a dog is squatting on your territory, is it unreasonable to pick up a stick to try to expel it, knowing with certainty that it can bite?
Whether you regard the action as stupid or heroic, probably depends on your elected affinities. But definitely expect more bloodshed.
It is reasonable to put down the stick if the result will be a glass half-full of keeping the remainder of your territory to build your state, albeit 75 years after you could have begun the job (and with far more land). Poland and Germany both lost plenty of historical territories in WW2 but they eventually accepted it and got on with life.
We can argue about historical analogies forever or who did what to whom first, but what is determinant of the outcome of this conflict is the balance of power at present. Israel cannot be defeated, only hurt. The militants are only capable of spoiling things for others and their own people, not building any positive outcome - precisely like the Russians trying to spoil the possibility of their neighbours having a better life without them. Surrender is an option is the other side is humane and willing to be reasonable.
I would challenge any supporter of the Palestinian cause to choose whether they would live in Israel or any neighbouring Arab country. When your own compatriots enjoy greater human rights as a minority living under your purported mortal enemy, what can you actually offer your own people with self-determination? A better dictator?
Your reasoning or calculus of power is seriously flawed. If it applied, then the people of Afghanistan would have surrendered to the Russians, or to the Americans. Instead, using what you call 'spoiling things', they forced both of these superpowers to withdraw. Let's not even consider Vietnam here, or more recently, Iraq.
And I think the popular notion of Israeli supremacy just took a serious battering. While spending over $24 billion annually on its military, it still manages to be caught off guard - incredibly - twice in a row. I'm honestly not mocking or denigrating here, I'm just pointing out a few sober facts. Superior weapons technology seems particularly vulnerable to a sometimes crude, but highly determined enemy and the terrain from which they come. You might recollect from your school history 'die Schlacht im Teutoburger Wald.'
What has been happening to Palestinians and the Bedouin in Israel since 1967, is neither humane nor acceptable. There is nothing reasonable or civilised about continuously appropriating their land and housing, creating an apartheid state where their rights and freedoms are severely curtailed, and where fanatical Jewish settlers with the protection of the IDF, can harass and even kill with impunity.
Perhaps it's time for your metaphorical 'dog' to reconsider the entire relationship, why, though it wins in every outright war, it is constantly hemorrhaging money on defence, but still cannot sleep in peace or security. Maybe it's time to reassess the canine ways in which it interacts with the stick wielder, who is still contesting the same territory.
You know, Fredro, a lot of people would prefer to continue herding their goats and growing their olives in the deserts, and wouldn't ever consider changing that for cocktails and blintzes in Tel Aviv.
You may not comprehend it, but the choice between a basic traditional life on your own land, or one of relative material wealth and opulence living in someone else's zoo, isn't as clear cut as you imply.
Don't underestimate the desire of a people for a sense of self-esteem and national pride, compared to the increase in material prosperity they might gain instead, if living under the control of their enemy.
Megan, In response to what you write I would like to point out that the UN resolution of 1947 divided then Palestine into 2: one area for the Jews and one for the Arabs, now Palestinians b/c it was clear they could not live together. The resolution required bot communities to be in an economic union and specified Jerusalem as an international city. The Jews accepted the partition and the State of Israel was established in 1948. The Arabs did not and, instead, chose to go to war. A quick glance at the map of partition shows it to be unworkable (in MHO). Had the Arabs, as they then were, not gone to war, they might well have got what they wanted - Palestine from the river to the sea. In addition Britain scarpered as they did in Africa and that didn't help matters
Being a bit one-sided, are we, Megan? Remember your psychopaths are freedom fighters to the oppressed and colonised. It's easy to dismiss those who fight occupation as mentally unstable, but that just indicates your inabilty to comprehend the political situation. The IRA achieved 26 counties and it's only a matter of time before the remaining 6 are reunited. Probably not a good example for you, an Anglo Saxon, to drag in this time.